TEENAGERS use e-cigarettes and snus.
Of course they do. Despite age limits, despite scaremongering, and despite the fact that many organizations collect large grants, taxpayers' money, to run campaigns to "warn young people about the dangers of nicotine".
The methods didn't work to curb youth smoking in the 80s, why should it work for e-cigs and nicotine pouches now?
When I lit my first cigarette, I was 14 years old. I didn't come from a smoking home, but I knew how dangerous it was. My grandfather died of lung cancer, my grandmother of emphysema (COPD). They smoked their way to death, but it didn't matter to me at the time. I wanted to try it, because I was curious.
And I liked it. Stupid? Maybe, but the benefits outweighed the risks at the time. Cigarettes opened the door to a world I had never had access to before.
If e-cigarettes had been around back then, in 1989, I might have stuck with it instead. There is research to suggest this. Personality, childhood factors, risk-taking tendencies and a wide range of other psychological factors influence our decisions as young people. The choice to take up smoking is of course no exception: the same 'type' of young people who vejpar and snuff today, started smoking in 1989. Why is this so?
Anxiety, nicotine and agony
Smoking, or for that matter e-cigs, fills a void. It helps many people create an identity, it leads to community, it even tickles the nerves. And no matter what anyone says, in the real world, nicotine reduces stress and anxiety. It's a kind of self-medication for all the agonies of adolescence. For me, smoking ultimately meant more than that: I met my first real friends in the smoking rooms, during the stove fan at partieson balconies where you could smoke. I got my first real job after a conversation in the smoking room of a local newspaper. This social aspect, the positive aspect of smoking, was in stark contrast to Non Smoking Generations lectures about how it was "cool" to be tobacco-free. The motto was that smoking "is stupid" and that I, like my grandmother, grandfather and basically all my friends were by definition stupid.
Who is listening?
It strikes me that this tactic of trying to scare young people into NOT doing something always follows the same pattern. And it creates problems. Because the only people who listen to the Non Smoking Generation are those who already fits in in their ideal image of what a young person should be: athletic, studious, attentive, receptive - like a disciple in the Bible. And yes, they are out there - relatively unproblematic young people who neither skip school nor hang out at parties. The ones who do their homework, succeed in school, struggle to get the best grade rather than a "measly" pass and think that the coolest thing at TikTok is wild dances. They're not the kind of kids who don't give a shit, are tired of school, and would rather spend Wednesday nights in a smoke- or steam-filled room listening to music with morally challenging lyrics. They are not the kind of people who sneak out of the house to hang out at their friend's house and watch bad horror movies that they are not supposed to see. They are not the ones who arrive ten minutes late because "they didn't hear the bell" from the smoking window. These are young people who traditionally use nicotine more than others and this is where smokers are born. This is the group where smoking has long been part of the culture, and they have no interest in listening to the Non Smoking Generation.
Smoke kills
The problem, of course, is that over time, smoking kills every second user. And no, it's not the nicotine that kills us, nor is it all the flavorings (yes, ALL cigarettes are flavored in some way) or all the chemicals that tobacco companies add to tobacco to increase enjoyment. It is the actual burning of the tobacco, the smoke itself, that kills.
But to expect smokers, like me and others like me, to just turn their backs on all the positives of smoking was just naïve. That's why new harm-reducing products like e-cigarettes, snus, nicotine pouches actually save lives. If we allow it.
Probabilities versus facts
Parents, politicians and authorities need to understand what is driving this behavior. They need to understand that e-cigarettes act as a substitute for cigarettes. The same feeling, the same social power, the same thrill. But they are not even close to as harmful as cigarettes, not even in a worst case scenario.
Steam is steam - not smoke. Sure, steam is not health food, but the small amounts of potentially harmful substances that can be measured in the vapor probably have no persistent effect on either blood vessels or lung cells. We have no long-term epidemiological data, but researchers in the field are working on a probability calculation, comparing the harmfulness of cigarette smoke to a presumed harmfulness in the vapor of e-cigarettes. Although we do not, for obvious reasons, know the effects of 40 years of vejp smoking, we we know what it means to smoke for 40 years: the damage is enormous. The body cannot breathe in smoke, tar and carbon monoxide for decades. Tar, which is a collective name for substances that cause many different types of cancer, is deadly and carbon monoxide has a clear link to cardiovascular disease. None of these substances are formed in the vapor of an e-cigarette. Therefore, it is always good if a smoker can replace their cigarettes with an e-cig, even if they continue to use nicotine for various reasons. Because nicotine is not deadly.
Harm reduction in the right place
Of course, young people will also be interested in e-cigarettes, whether it's for the great flavors, the cool devices, peer pressure or just because they like the kick. It's going to happen whether we like it or not - age limits don't apply on the black market, that's where they find their stuff. That's why it's particularly interesting to have research that actually clearly shows that this group of young people, who started smoking frequently 20 years ago, nowadays are attracted by e-cigarettes instead. It is about people like me and thousands of others. Those of us who are attracted by the benefits and don't care much about the risks. Those of us who like to hang out in the smoke.
Harm reduction also applies to young people
I am not, of course, going to sit here and encourage non-smoking young people to use electronic cigarettes. But I also realize that it does not really matter what I say. Teenagers will take risks. The well-known activist for more liberal drug policies and founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan Nadelman, noted a few years ago that drugs, whether it's cannabis or nicotine, come in early in life.
"This is an important point. A majority of our young people make their drug debut before their sexual debut. That's why we need a harm reduction perspective, a safety-first approach for them too" says Ethan Nadelman.
The importance of being pragmatic
As an adult, parent or just politically engaged, I have a responsibility. It is not about stopping young people from testing limits. Instead, it is about managing, and if possible limiting, the risks that young people inevitably expose themselves to. I therefore want to see seat belts in the cars, if we choose that analogy. I want to see sex education in school and that young people learn how to use condoms. I want them to use helmet, even on the trimmed moped. But I also want authorities and officials to inform that e-cigarettes (or for that matter snus and nicotine pouches) are not risk-free, but still a safer alternative for those young people who persist in smoking at break times. It is pragmatic risk minimization, harm reduction in practice.
Time to choose your path
How we as a society deal with the technology known as e-cigarettes can have major consequences for public health. If e-cigarettes continue to attract young people, we are likely to see the effects of that in 40 years' time in the form of greatly reduced harm from nicotine use. Maybe more addiction, but not fatal use.
If, on the other hand, the Non Smoking Generation and their funders (often those who sells nicotine medicines) are allowed to continue in the same old rut as before and, in the worst case, have a greater influence on policy, the opposite is likely to happen: e-cigarettes (and later snus and nicotine pouches) will be discouraged as an alternative on the market and young people will go back to using analog cigarettes instead, just like before. We already know the damage that would cause.
So it's about choosing the path. We can help young people who smoke to choose. They are very likely to continue doing stupid things. The only question is HOW stupid? THAT is what we choose.
