First let’s get this out of the way. In the interest of transparency I am not adverse to selling out but this is a non-sponsored post.
Since I’m poor I have to shop at Wal-Mart to help get by. It’s not new that they sell e-cigs but imagine my surprise when I see that they’re selling vaporizers and e-juice too. Just one brand though, The Haus Personal Vaporizer by the same company who makes Mistic e-cigs.
I didn’t purchase one due to funds being tight and I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to do a product review on one of these but allow me to present this informative review that I found on YouTube at the Gear Obsession channel.
So it appears to be a decent product.
What really caught my attention is that it says it’s cheaper than a trip to the vape store. After looking at the prices on their website I wouldn’t necessarily say cheaper but Wal-Marts, and some gas stations, are definitely closer to home than my vape store.
While it may cut into the vape store profits a little bit I think this is good for the vaping community as a whole. If a large-scale retailer like Wal-Mart is backing vaping even on a starter kit like this it could mean having a very big dog in the fight against over-regulation by the FDA. I think this is also good for vape stores because the Haus e-juice is only available in one nicotine strength and that’s full flavored. They list it as 2.4% nicotine. If I had to hazard a guess I would say it was at 18mg or above. Anyone looking to decrease their nicotine intake would inevitably end up in their local vape shop.
I realize this is all ‘perfect world’ theorizing on my part but you never know.
The Trench Reynolds Report 
Very astute of you to make the connection between a major retailer and the possibility of that retailer (and the accompanying financial influence, name recognition, etc.) making a powerful anti-FDA statement merely by offering these vaping products in their thousands of stores to millions of consumers. That’s brilliant! I never would have thought of that, but you are absolutely on target with this, not to mention the first person or site I’ve seen make that connection. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
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Thank you.
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Is vaping a gateway for young people to start smoking?
The number of middle and high-school students who have tried so-called “e-cigarettes” has tripled in the past three years, and is doubling the number of youth who say they will begin smoking regular cigarettes too, according to a new survey.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-e-cigarettes-a-gateway-drug-for-children-2014-04-16
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My kids are grown so I can’t speak to that. It’s up to parents to make sure they’re kids aren’t using these. But I can’t see how they can be a gateway to smoking since they’re cheaper than cigarettes and not as harsh to use.
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Based on this definition of a gateway drug from wikipedia, I think vaping could be considered a gateway, since by your own admission it is cheaper than cigarettes and not as harsh to use.
The gateway drug theory (also called gateway theory, gateway hypothesis and gateway effect) states that the use of less deleterious drugs can lead to a future risk of using more dangerous hard drugs or crime. It is often attributed to the earlier use of one of several licit substances, including tobacco or alcohol, as well as cannabis.
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You are correct in theory but I don’t think in practice since e-cigs and vaping were designed with the intent to get people off of cigarettes,
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That is the official intent of e-cigarettes to satisfy the FDA, but there are very few restrictions on selling them to minors. I think they should have prohibited the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, because the nicotine in e-cigarettes is still extremely addictive.
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All the establishments I’ve been in that sell these products clearly state that they will not sell these products to minors. But historically that has not stopped minors from getting their hands on age restricted products,
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There are no federal regulations restricting the sale to minors.
From what I’ve found only about 11 states ban the sale to minors.
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Yet the establishments that sell them already ban minors from buying them.
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E-cigarette use as a predictor of cigarette smoking: results from a 1-year follow-up of a national sample of 12th grade students
Richard Miech, Megan E Patrick, Patrick M O’Malley, Lloyd D Johnston
Author affiliations
Abstract
Objective To prospectively examine vaping as a predictor of future cigarette smoking among youth with and without previous cigarette smoking experience. A secondary aim is to investigate whether vaping may desensitise youth to the dangers of smoking.
Methods Analysis of prospective longitudinal panel data from the nationally representative Monitoring the Future study. The analysis is based on 347 12th grade students who were part of a randomly selected subsample that completed in-school surveys in 2014 and were resurveyed 1-year later.
Results Among youth who had never smoked a cigarette by 12th grade, baseline, recent vapers were more than 4 times (relative risk (RR)=4.78) more likely to report past-year cigarette smoking at follow-up, even among youth who reported the highest possible level of perceived risk for cigarette smoking at baseline. Among 12th grade students who had smoked in the past but had not recently smoked at baseline, recent vapers were twice (RR=2.15) as likely to report smoking in the past 12 months at the follow-up. Vaping did not predict cessation of smoking among recent smokers at baseline. Among never-smokers at baseline, recent vapers were more than 4 times (RR=4.73) more likely to move away from the perception of cigarettes as posing a ‘great risk’ of harm, a finding consistent with a desensitisation process.
Conclusions These results contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting vaping as a one-way bridge to cigarette smoking among youth. Vaping as a risk factor for future smoking is a strong, scientifically-based rationale for restricting youth access to e-cigarettes.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2016-053291
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