Vaping: addiction forces you to confront how pathetic and powerless you are. By Alex McClintock
The thing is, I smoked cigarettes, and the very real downsides of that habit
were beginning to seem a lot more pressing than my theoretical objections to
vaping. Smoking is
miserable both physically – it makes you smell, cough and eventually die – and
mentally, in that it makes you aware of how little control you have over your
own decisions. It gets a little harder to pretend you enjoy tobacco each time
you arrive home from the pub, pour water on your remaining cigarettes, throw
away your lighters and swear you’ll never smoke again. In fact, by the third
night in a row I find it’s virtually impossible.
So despite my
misgivings, earlier last year I decided it was time to become a vape lord. I
figured it would be cheaper, better smelling and less lung clogging than
smoking. I don’t claim that reasoning was good or logical, only that it was my
reasoning. I went out in Toronto and bought a Juul, which in case you haven’t
been paying attention is something like the iPhone of vapes, only more popular
with teenagers. It’s a nifty piece of kit, all smooth and dark, with a pulsing
LED light and a magnetic USB charger….
Which is not to say
that vaping isn’t addictive. In fact, I found it far more addictive than smoking
because, for all its many faults, smoking is an analogue technology that
involves lighting something on fire. This imposes certain inbuilt consumption
limits. Smoking sets off smoke detectors and landlords and makes your soft
furnishings smell, so you generally avoid doing it indoors. It leaves a foul
taste in your mouth and clogs your lungs, so you try not to do it every minute
of the day….
