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1. They taste better 2. Yes, they are easier to get, for a couple reasons: once you have a juul you only need juul pods, and additionally you don't need to pur
by webkike 7y ago
1. They taste better
2. Yes, they are easier to get, for a couple reasons: once you have a juul you only need juul pods, and additionally you don't need to purchase a lighter (which you need to be over eighteen a lot of places to purchase).
edit 3. They are far more discreet (you can vape in a classroom if you are in the back and it is dark) and deliver more nicotine.
- ndarwincorn 7y agoNot only easier to get, but so much easier to conceal.
- mifreewil 7y agoHow are purchasing juul pods any different than cigarettes?
- webkike 7y agoyou don't need to purchase a lighter to use them and they last longer.
- lighthazard 7y agoYes.. but they need to source that juul pod somehow - a lighter isn't really an obstacle point for smoking..
- webkike 7y agoIn California when I was a teenager six years ago it certainly was an obstacle.
- lighthazard 7y agoI'm sorry, I meant a lighter isn't an obstacle to smoking. You can use a household stove lighter, a match, a car cigarette thing.. there are lots of opportunities.
- flatline 7y agoAs someone who used to get lighters as a teenager just to have one, without using it to smoke (though in my later teens I smoked), I find this fascinating. Are smaller matchbooks also prohibited? Like others have mentioned, I never had trouble starting a fire as a teenage boy, it's like this inborn survival instinct.
- webkike 7y agoThere is literally zero statute or law preventing the sale of lighters to anyone. That being said, gas station attendants and Walgreens cashiers in the particular area I grew up (which was the bay area) would not sell them to anyone under 18. I have no idea about matches - I couldn't find them.
- okcando 7y agoLighters are inexpensive, common, and last a long time. Juul pods are age-restricted consumables, just like cigarettes. I think the lack of odor, more agreeable flavors, and less health or social stigma are more important. I doubt e-cigarettes differ much from cigarettes in how easy it is to get ahold of when underage, although perhaps adults are more willing to sell them to or buy them for teenagers on the belief that they're harmless.
- webkike 7y agoSure, but it is still non trivial for teenagers to get lighters in California (where my experience comes from). The lighter is the juul itself. The cigarettes are the juul pods. A juul lasts longer than a lighter.
- bobwaycott 7y agoA juul vaporizer does last longer than a lighter, but at a significantly higher cost. Lighters cost a buck or two and last for hundreds and hundreds of cigarettes. The juul vaporizer is also just as easy to misplace/lose as a lighter. As a former CA teen, lighters were absolutely trivial to get—and far less hassle than getting a juul vaporizer. Hell, you can find matches pretty damn easily, too. Edit: Assuming the average teenager has limited funds, a lighter and pack of cigarettes is far cheaper than a juul vaporizer and pack of pods. Even once you have the juul, the pods are still more expensive than buying a new lighter and cigarettes in many areas.
- webkike 7y agoI'm not going to argue that it was major obstacle. Not at all. In fact I'm willing to concede that it is so much a non issue that I should not have included it on my list of reasons. But there was definitely a year of my life less than six years ago when I was not able to purchase a lighter from any gas station in the bay area, and I'm absolutely certain that it has only gotten more difficult for teenagers since cigarettes now require you to be 21 to purchase. And I should mention there is no law preventing the sale of lighters. People will just flat out refuse if you don't have an ID. The times they are a changing
- ThrustVectoring 7y agoI believe that most teens buy juul pods from peers, so network penetration is its own facilitating factor. Furthermore, the price differential between wholesale and word-of-mouth high school black market is likely high enough to drive a pretty brisk trade.
- holy_city 7y agoWhy is it easier to buy juul pods than a pack of cigarettes? And I'm not aware of any place in the states you need to be over 18 to buy a lighter - and as a former dumbass teenager, I don't think kids have difficulty in figuring out how to light things on fire. Discretion makes sense, but I feel like rationalizing an irrational decision here. Wouldn't it be more discrete not to vape?
- webkike 7y agoI personally remember being a teenager in California trying to buy a lighter to smoke and it was not straightforward. Indeed, I ended up being successful, but I had to use a stove lighter we had lying around my house. Huh? Are you saying that teenagers behave completely rationally? We just wanted to rip our magic flight launch boxes while watching bill nye. It would have been more discrete to sit down and shut up.
- bsder 7y ago> Why is it easier to buy juul pods than a pack of cigarettes? There are non-nicotine pods. And they have all of the social addictiveness even if they don't have actual nicotine in them.
- t-writescode 7y agoif there’s no nicotine, then who cares? Magic the Gathering cards and pogs were addicting back in the day, but kids could still buy them.
- bsder 7y agoMtG doesn't have any health downsides other than possibly being a marker for being too sedentary. Vaping has direct health consequences over "not vaping" even without nicotine. The "safety" of vaping is predicated on being compared to "smoking cigarettes". If a bunch of non-smokers picks up vaping, that calculus evaporates. Consequently, selling vaping to a non-smoking, teenage market should come under extreme scrutiny. In addition, everything about the vaping experience is designed to be addicting. I had a friend who believed exactly as you do until he tried one of the flavored, non-nicotine pods. They have a very strong attraction.
- oarabbus_ 7y agoJust FYI, you're looking for "discreet".
- dehrmann 7y agoI learned about this in math class. Discrete vs. discreet, not vaping in the back of math class.
- webkike 7y agoCongratulations.
- neogodless 7y agoI always think, "the two letter 'e's are discrete from each other, but the two letter 'e's hide away discreetly." Or something like that. It works, I swear!