Posted by Dave on 12/20/2008, 11:24 am, in reply to "Sounds gross to me"
68.11.149.9
I definitely see your point about the mechanics of nicotine delivery, Phil. But I think that you've hit on one of the major reasons for smoking going underground to begin with--lots of people already look at a smoker lighting up a cigarette as no different than you imagine they'd view a smoker using one of these devices. They've learned to view the smoking of cigarettes not as a casual activity that some people chose to indulge in, but as the foul ritual of a drug addict who will do what it takes to get a fix.
I have no doubt that electronic cigarettes and vaporizers will never become the norm, but I don't think they'll lose out to regular cigarettes. Instead, I think that the use of regular cigarettes will become more and more of a fringe behavior for many of the same reasons you list as negatives of the e-cigarette. Already, I think back to the days in the 1990's when students at universities stepped out into the hallways after class and lit up while on their way to the next class, and the whole thing strikes me as downright foreign--it seems like such a thing was only ever allowed in some odd alternate universe. The same thing has happened to smoking on planes, in supermarkets (imagine--people used to smoke while waiting in the checkout line!), in restaurants, etc.
In each of these cases, someone lighting up would be seen not just a rule violator these days, but as a serious addict who could not wait for a dose of nicotine. And it's not much different when a smoker excuses him- or herself from a group at a restaurant or bar to go smoke outside. Increasingly, I think, ALL cigarettes might as well be e-cigarettes--drug delivery devices that call attention to themselves as such.
--Previous Message--
: I'm sorry. I may hate myself for being a
: closet smoker at times, slave to my
: addiction, but this thing would make me feel
: like a complete drug addict. How ridiculous
: one would look in public using this
: contraception! All the fun of smoking would
: be compromised to satisfy an addiction
: while making one feel like the first class
: junkie they really are, and letting everyone
: around know it. No thanks! This thing, in
: the last analysis, will be a bust. Nicotine,
: other than being addictive, is not worth it.
: Now, it they could develop a cannabis
: version, then maybe...
:
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