LAST UPDATE | 16 Sep
I STARTED VAPING back in 2022 when a friend in a smoking area offered this colourful “Watermelon Ice” flavoured brick to me. I’d never vaped before. I’d never smoked, bar the odd cig in a smoking area over the years that never progressed as I hated the taste and didn’t understand how people could do this all the time.
But vaping was different. There was an instant hit of artificial fruit flavour and a lightness to the head. After a few more nights of being offered and accepting puffs on a vape, I decided I would buy my own and stop scabbing off others and from there, I was hooked.
The news last week that the government looks set to ban the sale of single-use vapes in Ireland was met with delight by so many and probably anxiety by others, the ones who, like me, were addicted to vapes.
I can honestly say, I never would have bought that first vape if they weren’t out on display in every shop. I simply just had to point at the most appealing-sounding flavour in it’s bright neon packaging and that was it. This never would have happened with cigarettes. I wouldn’t have had a blues clue what to even ask for and due to laws, cigarettes are hidden well away behind shop counters for no eyes to see.
You’re instantly drawn in by the colourful packaging on vapes. They’re like a row of highlighters staring you out of it in every store. It’s no surprise that they are inadvertently targeting younger people with this packaging between both the colourful covers and a range of flavours like “pink lemonade” or “sour grape”.
I started off just vaping when it came to a night out. It was nice not to feel out of place in the smoking area and be able to have a conversation away from the noise inside. But soon, I progressed to vaping all day every day. I would wake up with a vape on the pillow, take a puff and think “Ah… fresh air!”.
In my head, I was convinced this wasn’t a dangerous thing to be doing. It was safe, right? The whole conversation at the time was that vapes were better than cigarettes, so I ignorantly assumed I had nothing to worry about. As time progressed, I would go through a disposable vape a day. Which per week meant I was spending around €70 on them.
I always figured I could stop at any point if I needed to, I didn’t think I had a problem and this wasn’t like smoking, it was different, right? I only discovered how powerful that addiction was when I tried to quit.
After over a year of vaping, I had constant chest pains. I was out of breath after very light activity. I lost half a stone which, quite toxically at the time, I was delighted about. But I became irritable if I was without a vape. If I was in a setting where I didn’t have access to one, or the shop was closed before I could buy another for that day, I would become very agitated and nothing else could suppress that craving.
I had unsuccessfully tried to quit over the Summer of 2023 while away travelling out of the country. I knew I wouldn’t have access to vapes and thought this would be a great time to do it and it worked! For three weeks, I did not vape. I thought this is it; I’m over them! But once I came home and was offered one in a smoking area, I was straight back on them and hooked all over again. I left the pub early to go buy a vape on my walk home.
But the final straw came at New Year’s 2024. I was turning 30 the next day and vowed I didn’t want to be vaping in my 30s. I was sick of having a constant cough, chest pains and equally how dependant I had become on sucking on this flavoured USB stick.
I quit cold turkey and it was incredibly difficult. The first three weeks were the toughest. I had phantom pains from not having this constant battery filled with sugar in my hand. I was insanely agitated and almost broke several times. But I knew if I gave in now, I would be back to square one. I started to gain back the weight I had lost as time continued, and this was possibly the hardest part to get through.
As someone who has struggled with eating disorders in the past it suddenly felt like I had lost control and reaching for the vape would be a quick fix. But I didn’t. From 1 January 2024 to today, I have not touched a vape. Although I am proud of this, but what’s worse is, I know if I did have one again, there’s a high chance I’d end up hooked all over again.
People have offered me vapes since, and I’ve been around groups vaping, and I know I could never take that risk of “just one more puff” after over nine months off them.
I know I would never have started vaping if they were not so easily accessible. They are in every shop, visibly on display in every eye-catching colour imaginable. Every flavour sounds like it could be a bonbon flavour. Vapes are not being targeted at adults and are contributing to a new generation of teens and young adults getting hooked on nicotine. I have spoken to people who have used vapes as a way to ease off smoking, and I can’t deny their benefit in that sense. But equally, I have met vapers who were smokers who have said quitting vaping has been so much tougher than quitting smokes.
Think about it; to smoke, you have to go outside in public places, in all weathers. Bars and restaurants do often have signs saying “no vaping” but that doesn’t stop you from seeing people sneakily puff on one hidden up their sleeve, or heading to the bathroom for a quick vape in between courses.
But from my own personal experience, they became an incredibly addictive product that only caused me health issues and a serious financial dent. I dread to think how much I spent on vapes for the almost two years that I used them. They are marketed incorrectly as a “safe” smoking alternative, in my opinion. Yes, they do not contain tobacco and may be safer than smoking in that sense, but no long-term evidence is available as of yet to understand what the long-term effects of exposure to vaping are. For now, medical experts are predicting that those outcomes will be pretty dire.
Banning disposable vapes I feel will help a younger generation quit nicotine and equally stop them from ever smoking or taking up the habit. So many people message me directly asking for advice or tips on how to quit and their story is so often the same; they had never smoked but were hooked on vaping.
This ban will also help stop the littering of vapes and their stickers across every street and bin in the city. And at the end of the day, you really don’t want to be known as a “vapist” do you?
Justine Stafford is a comedian, actor and writer.
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