From heets to disposable vapes to a simpler pod system. 39-year-old Nikita Lövheden's journey from smoker to non-smoker has been through a variety of nicotine products.
"I have been smoke-free for over five years. I might have a cigarette at a party once in a while, but I know I won't start smoking again. It's not good at all anymore," she says when we meet in a cold Gothenburg spring in one of the city's three vejpshoppar - specialist e-cigarette shops.
- Vejpkollen collaborated with Convenience Stores Sweden News to portray the Swedish nicotine consumption, beyond the statistics. This is a report in a slightly modified version against the original published in CSS News. -
She just got some new pods, tanks, for her e-cigarette. And some small bottles of e-liquid. They are lined up in front of her on the table.
"Well, the hard part about e-cigs is all the choices and different flavors. I like most of it, as long as it doesn't get too strong in my throat. The only thing I can't stand is tobacco flavors. It's just disgusting. Well, I've found ONE - but it was in a disposable vape and it tasted more like coffee than tobacco, come to think of it," she says as she fills her tank with something that tastes like mango.
At least she hopes so. The e-juice doesn't always taste as Nikita imagines. "But as long as there's menthol in it, it's usually fine," she jokes.
"Few who smoke"
Nikita Lövheden talks fast. It's a contrast to the quiet calm that characterizes a vejpshop at one in the afternoon. Customers usually arrive in the afternoon. Nikita is used to a different pace, she says. After eleven years as a security guard, she changed jobs twice and now works as an assistant nurse at the transplant unit at Sahlgrenska Hospital. A different pulse, for sure.
"There are few people who smoke or vejpar. But basically EVERYONE uses snuff, mostly nicotine pouches," she says. "It's easy not to have to go out to get your kick and it smells nothing. I've tried those too, dry, wet and his aunt, but it just doesn't work. I get all weird in my mouth from snuff and stuff, I have to kindly go out on breaks or wait until the work day is over.
Compass printing and neighborhood policing
She took her first puff on a cigarette when she was 13, she says. She grew up in Partille, outside Gothenburg, in the 80s and 90s.
"I started very early. I think there was a lot of peer pressure involved there. We would sneak behind the sheds outside the school. Our two neighborhood cops were there sometimes, checking on us. They were probably worried about us doing drugs. But they used to chat with us and were very nice. I guess they chose their battles. The fact that we were smoking was not the end of the world"
Stealing from mom
She remembers that it was easy to get cigarettes in those days. And if she couldn't, she used to steal some from home.
"Me and a friend rolled my mom's rolling tobacco. Then we filled it up with something else, dry spices or that stuff from when you sharpen pencils"
I ask if mom didn't notice anything. Smoking pencil weed isn't the most fun thing, is it?
"No, she didn't notice anything, once I told her, she didn't believe me at first so I had to prove it. But she was very firm when it came to smoking. She said that if I were to get a cigarette, it would only be through her. She was afraid that I would get hold of something that was laced with something else" says Nikita Lövheden.
Bigger packages - more smoking
Nevertheless, the supply was different in the shops. It was at a turning point when tobacco laws were changing.
"Yes, my God. You could buy them one at a time for two kronor. And I liked buying those little packs of ten cigarettes. When they were taken away, I had to buy big packs. Then I started smoking more too. So it wasn't very successful," she says.
Successful with medicines - for a while
She first quit smoking when she was expecting her first child, without any aids or substitutes. However, she started again a while after giving birth. In 2017, she tried to quit again, partly because her husband at home thought the smell of smoke was too much.
This time with the help of the drug 'champix', varenicline. Varenicline inhibits the body's production of dopamine, which also removes the 'pleasure' of nicotine. It is a medicine recommended by both the public health authority and of course, by the pharmaceutical companies.
"It actually worked. For a while, anyway. I stopped taking the pills quite quickly. Then I didn't smoke for a year. It wasn't exactly fun, but it went surprisingly well"
"The cigarette at the party"
It was on a trip to Egypt that she tried a puff on a slightly more luxurious cigarette (slims). On a festive occasion. Just one, she says.
"And it was as good as it used to be. And although I would only have one "at the party", I ended up smoking as regularly as before. I started to like the menthol cigarette, clickers used to be my favorite but they were no longer available."
Click cigarettes were banned in 2016.
"I guess it was a combination of things that made me switch from cigarettes. After a friend showed me an IQOS with Heets, I got a bit curious. There was a drive at the press office, I think, and then I took the opportunity to buy one. Since then, I haven't actually smoked, except for the odd occasion." says Nikita.
Not for health reasons
Heets and IQOS are a variant of an e-cigarette, where tobacco mixed with glycerine is heated and vaporized. Instead of smoke, vapor is formed, which dramatically reduces the amount of harmful substances. The technology was launched by Philip Morris in 2015 and is now sold in many shops, alongside cigarettes. For Nikita, it was the start of a new journey. But it wasn't health or harm reduction concerns that drove the decision.
"No, I learned about the health aspects a little later. I understand how it works and that there is a big difference between smoke and vapor. "This is actually much less harmful than smoking" I thought. But that wasn't the main reason, actually. It was that I didn't smell smoke anymore, even though I was "smoking". That was an important thing. Then I was a bit bothered that the appliance itself started to smell like a cigarette butt after a while. Not the end of the world, and I tried to clean it often. But still. At least it worked. I used Heets for three years, almost."
The feeling is more important than the nicotine
As with IQOS, it was chance that led her to the next thing, she says. A friend had gotten her a disposable vape - a miniature e-cigarette that lasts one to two days. It works by heating e-liquid (glycerine, propylene glycol, and flavoring) into a vapor. No tobacco, but with added nicotine.
"The downside of Heets, at least at that time, was that they were not available everywhere. Disposable models were everywhere. It was a bit of an aha experience. Heets taste quite similar to a cigarette. A vejp tastes almost like candy. Very tasty. And then it hits your throat in a different way. For me, it's probably the feeling, and not the nicotine, that is a big part of the thing. If it weren't for that, a nicotine patch would certainly have worked. But now it doesn't, because it just gets boring," she laughs.
Must not be too complicated
When we meet, she has just switched from disposable models to an e-cigarette that can be both charged and refilled with separate e-liquid. "Disposable models are quite expensive in the long run," she says. At the same time, she doesn't want it to be too complicated.
"No, I don't think an e-cig should be complicated. There should preferably not even be a button. But I like to be able to choose more different flavors. It should always be something with a cooling effect, ice or menthol. And it mustn't be too strong, or I'll get a sore throat." Nikita says as she turns a small tank, a so-called pod, that she recently filled with e-liquid. "It needs to sit and absorb for a while, I've learned," she says, with some impatience.
Do not want to ban for the children
I ask her how her children, four in number and of different ages, view e-cigarettes. And how she herself acts as a parent when it comes to smoking and other risks to which her children expose themselves.
"For us, it has never been about banning this or that. But we have said this: if you don't sneak a smoke or drink before you turn eighteen, we will pay for your driver's license. Unfortunately, I found a package in my daughter's bag that she had stolen from me. I wasn't happy at all but after that she stopped altogether actually. Then she got her license with her own money when she turned eighteen. Proudly, too. It was the same with the older son, but under different circumstances."
"Far worse things than e-cigs"
At the same time, she believes that neither smoking nor, for that matter, vejping are among the most serious challenges facing parents today.
"I mean, if a child gets the idea to start wearing false nails too early, they can ruin their cuticles for the rest of their lives if they don't like it. Or if they dye their hair and go for two years feeling bad because it didn't turn out well. What's a few puffs on an e-cig compared to anxiety that can have consequences far later in life? And if we're being picky, why not let them vejpake nicotine-free? What harm does it do, in comparison. I think it's important to put things in perspective," she says as we walk out to the car parked outside the store.
She takes a puff and squints at the sun.
"As soon as it gets a bit warmer, I usually go out to sea or lake and fish. That's when, and only then, I smoke these days. On a rock by the water. And it feels completely ok. Because there's no chance of me becoming a smoker again. It's a good feeling," she says before hurrying off to her next shift.
