Last Updated on December 12, 2023 by Team Spinfuel
Dr. Michael Siegel explains why flavors are not the problem with teen vaping, it’t the nicotine delivery system. And we could not agree more. Since the very first time we began writing about nicotine salts and their ridiculous levels of nicotine in various closed system pod mods, or as 30mL bottles of e-juice, we could not justify their existence.
Yes, there was flavor in the bottled e-juice of Nic-salt brands, but working hard years ago, going from 24mg of freebase nicotine (normal, traditional nicotine) to 3mg nicotine and finally 1.5mg nicotine, seeing 40mg, 50mg, and JUUL‘s 59mg of nicotine salts, we could feel the future problems from this type of e-liquid.
It took all of about one minute to realize that JUUL, and their 59mg of nicotine salt pods, could be the death of vaping as we knew it. A cheap, legal high like over-vaping a JUUL was too much temptation for teenager looking to get a buzz.
Originally bought up by Michael Siegel
The obsession of policy makers, politicians, and health groups on banning flavored e-cigarettes as a solution to the youth vaping epidemic is misguided and is detracting attention from the real issue: the use of nicotine salts that have greatly increased the addiction potential of e-cigarettes.
Wow. Michael Siegel could easily fit in here at Spinfuel Vape. What he has written here, could fit right in our own pages. Let’s face it, is anyone rightfully afraid of nicotine addiction of their children because of some fruit flavored e-juice, or because there is an extraordinary amount of nicotine in the product they are vaping? There is a world of difference between 59mg of nicotine salt nicotine and 3mg or 6mg of freebase nicotine.
On another note, every e-liquid brand sells a Zero Nic version of every flavor, why ban these flavors? (I’ll save that for another day)
Nicotine Salts
Teenagers like the buzz they can get when taking a JUUL and vaping in several “hits” in succession. If you’ve ever experienced a buzz from too much nicotine you know that following the buzz is a headache, sweats, nausea, and more unpleasantness then you might thing you can enjoy. Personally, a nicotine buzz is sickening. Teenagers, some of them, would do just about anything to feel “altered”… you don’t want teenagers on the hunt for black market crap, that’s for sure.
More from Michael Siegel
The most effective solution is right before our eyes, but it’s being hidden because of the obsessive and misguided focus on cotton candy, bubble gum, and gummy bear. What we need to do is not ban bubble gum flavor, but severely restrict and control the use of nicotine salts as well as limit the allowable nicotine concentrations in all products.
Exactly. Firstly, we don’t need nicotine salts. They became popular because the nicotine is very smooth, not harsh, so higher levels of nicotine can be used. But the need for anything higher than 24mg of freebase nicotine is not needed in 99.99% of the cases. How do we know this?
For years the highest nicotine strength you could get in legally made e-juice was 24mg. And as a pack a day smoker 24mg was too much for most people. It was effective for the 2 or 3 pack a day smoker. After a couple of weeks that nicotine level could be lowered to 18mg, then 12mg…. then 6mg, 3mg, 1.5mg and finally Zero nicotine. After reaching zero nicotine you could quit completely, or simply enjoy the sensation of the flavors and huge clouds of vapor.
To those politicians that want to control the market, but want to do so in fairness and not Big Tobacco corruption, could easily restrict the nicotine content to a reasonable number. They can Ban all closed pod mods (pods that are already filled with e-liquid). They could pass a law that forbids any packaging with images that appeal to the young. As we said before, black labels with white type is fine with us. It’s the flavor that’s important, not the bright colors on the bottles.
