Nicotine addictions increasingly driving vape users back to cigarettes
A new Los Angeles Times report details a painfully ironic contradiction: Vape users turning to cigarettes to cope with their nicotine addictions, challenging vapes' original purpose of helping cigarette users quit smoking altogether.
The big picture: As cigarette use has declined, e-cigarettes and vaping are seeing a sharp increase in popularity — but not without pushback. Just last week, Juul, a vaping technology, faced backlash from lawmakers for being advertised as less harmful than cigarettes without approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
- A recent surge in vaping-related illness caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to release a statement warning against the broad use of vapes.
- Juul is also being targeted for allegedly marketing to youth. States attorneys are seeking to prevent increased youth use through a series of lawsuits and investigations, while the Trump administration last week announced plans to pull all flavored e-cigarette cartridges from the market.
What they're saying: In a statement to the LA Times, Juul said its product is designed to "help adult smokers switch from combustible cigarettes to an alternative nicotine delivery system.”
- But some Juul users are backsliding. Dr. Amanda Graham of Truth Initiative, an anti-tobacco group, says she's witnessed users succumbing to "desperation and misguided approaches" to stump their nicotine addictions.
- “Young people are fumbling in the dark with what seems logical,” Graham told the Times. "But there is no safe level of cigarette smoking."
- A Juul user who quit the device following significant breathing problems told the Times: "I think a lot of people are quitting completely or going back to cigarettes ... maybe [vaping] isn’t as safe as we once thought."