Our Take on “Tobacco-free” Nicotine and the Nicotine Epidemic
As members of Gen-Z ourselves, we have experienced the rise of “tobacco-free” (which are really synthetic or heavily modified) nicotine products and their contribution to an epidemic of nicotine addiction, the proportions of which have never been seen before. The reality is, these products haven’t been on the market long enough for the long-term health consequences to be established. Collectively, we are operating under an assumption that they are safer than cigarettes, but that is an assumption, not a scientific conclusion. The nicotine industry has used this moment, while we are still operating in the historical blindspot of the consequences, to market them as a “cleaner”, “safer” option, while also being required to disclose NONE of the toxic chemicals in their final products.
We believe that regardless of how the physical consequences compare to cigarettes, these products present real and serious threats to human health. It is our belief that the negative effects of these products on brain health and the health of the human energy body, in many cases, exceed that of cigarettes. And there are logical explanations as to why this would be the case. These products are modified or synthesized to have concentrations of nicotine well beyond what is found in natural tobacco. On top of that, they have been produced and advertised with the express-written intent of making nicotine use possible anytime, anywhere. That means no boundaries between the user and their drug of choice. These two factors taken together enable an extreme level of chemical dependency, meaning that the psychological and physiological consequences of addiction are taken to an entirely new level.
This makes quitting them a unique challenge. And in a world filled with many patronizing messages about our generation’s choices of coping mechanisms, we decided to address the issue ourselves. There is real suffering underlying the nicotine epidemic—it is not simply a trend or fad. And it is the root cause of addictions (which the dominant paradigm of addiction still does not acknowledge) that we intend to address. All with the firsthand perspective of the unique struggles our generation faces and awareness of what addiction to these products actually feels like.