As a vaper, hearing your friends or relatives talk about quitting smoking puts you in an interesting position.
Do you expound on the joys of vaping, only to see them roll their eyes and say "I don't know, I've never tried that"?
Do you offer them a puff of your vape and say "This could have nicotine in it, like an arm patch only delicious"?
Do you leave it be and let them figure it out on their own?
we are super in favor of smokers making the switch to a more enjoyable and less health-risky way to get their daily nicotine. And of anyone reducing their nicotine use if they want to. But we also know that most people who are struggling with the 'quit smoking process' don't really want to hear a bunch of lectures. They get that enough already.
So how, exactly, can you be their cool friend who doesn't lecture while still making the quit easier with the joys of vaping? We suggest gifts, which often speak louder than words and with far less eye-rolling.
WHY GIFT VAPES ARE GREAT FOR SMOKING-QUITTERS
For anyone who is currently trying to quit smoking, everything about life gets harder. Going to work, hanging out with friends, even playing with their dog comes with that underlying fatigue, craving, and constant thoughts about the desire to smoke. This can often lead to a decision-making shutdown. People quitting will think to themselves "If I can only make it through today, then I'll have quit for another day" and making it through involves moving like a zombie-robot through their day making as few new decisions as possible.
FIRST-TIME VAPING = LOTS OF DECISIONS
So deciding to take up vaping is pretty much out of the question. Why? Because there are way too many decisions to make to get there. It's not just picking up a pack of nicotine gum at the store. They have to decide which vape rig to get, which flavor to start with, and figure out what the best nicotine concentration is. They have to figure out how the vape works, then learn how to open and fill it. All before taking that first medically assistive and delicious hit of vape. All before deciding if they even like vape as a smoking alternative. And when you're in the middle of quitting, that's all just way too much to take in.
MAKING THE SWITCH IS A BIG STEP
And for friends who are all talk about quitting, they haven't even brought themselves to make that first critical decision to stop and the addiction itself may make it harder for them to make any choice that leads them away from cigarettes.
This is why gift vapes, already loaded with a flavor your friend will like at the right nicotine concentration, is one of the best possible ways for a current vaper to help a friend quit smoking via vaping.
PREPARING YOUR QUIT-ASSISTIVE VAPE GIFT
Because of the whole decision conundrum, the best way to help your friend vape is to make all the decisions for them. Ideally, using your close relationship to predict what they will like and how to set up a good first-time vape experience for them.
CHOOSE AN EASY VAPE RIG
The first step is to pick a vape rig for your friend to start with. Chances are, they're not yet ready to become vape tinkers with hand-built custom mod boxes. Instead, look for a simple pen design with a small number of pieces that is very easy to both fill and clean. This will make it easier for your friend to understand the new device and immediately start making use of it.
As a special touch, try to find a pen in their favorite color or with a design you know they think is stylin'. This will help them feel awesome instead of silly holding the new device.
PREDICT A FAVORITE FLAVOR
The next step is to pick up one to three different flavors of vape juice that you think your friend will really enjoy. Having a tasty experience is one of the best parts about vaping and it's also one of the major draws for quitting smokers who are making the switch. If your friend has a wild sweet tooth, look into dessert flavors that taste like their favorite treats. If your friend loves minty-anything, look into the menthol line of flavors for a mix you know they'll love. And if you have heard your friend waxing poetically about the taste of fresh tobacco cigarettes, make sure to grab at least one bottle that is strongly tobacco flavored for their cigarette-nostalgic delight.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT NICOTINE CONCENTRATION
Whether you yourself are an ex-smoker with nic-vape or you've never inhaled a breath of nicotine in your life, your friend will need the right nicotine concentration to successfully make the transition. They will likely want new bottles of nicotine vape that are of a similar concentration per-puff to cigarettes. Most smokers agree that this can be found in bottles of the 16mg nicotine variety.
However, if your friend has been trying to cold-turkey or use only patches and gum to get by, they might want one step lighter
PREPARING THE PERFECT GIFTING
Finally, you want to think about how you present your quit-smoking vape gift to your friend or relative. If it comes with a lecture, for example, it's probably going to be less well-receieved than, say, at a nice dinner together or during a stay-home movie marathon. The key is to both keep it casual and make it easy for your friend to take up vaping on their own if they do decide they really like it as a smoking alternative..
MAKE REFILLS EASY
Perhaps the most important thing about the gifting is that your friend can re-up their eliquid supply and try new flavors easily. We suggest including a little insert or card in the gift packaging with the name of the website and the nicotine concentration chart to help them quickly and easily reorder instead of falling back to cigarettes when the bottles run dry.
PLAN THE MOMENT
Don't just drop the vape into your friend's hands and say "Happy Quit Day" and walk off. That's almost as weirdly offputting as a lecture about the evils of smoking. Instead, plan a fun afternoon or evening together that will remind your friend that you care and just want them to be happy. In the right moment, present them with your gift in a friendly no-pressure kind of way. Make it clear that you thought it might be useful to them, and that it was put together with the idea of maybe helping them quit to smoke.
We encourage you to keep the 'no pressure' message on both so your friend doesn't feel like this is a hidden-lecture and so they don't feel bad if vaping turns out not to be their thing after all. Being super cool is the key to helping a friend quit smoking. Fortunately, we know that all vapers are automatically super cool so you should have this base totally covered.
If you have a friend or relative that has been struggling to quit smoking, vaping might just be exactly what they need. But just telling someone to try vaping is like telling someone to try that new gym down the street. There's a pretty low chance they're actually going to do it. But giving them a vape that is already loaded and supplied with delicious medium-strength nicotine vape juice is an entirely different story. They might just make the switch on their first curious (and miraculously easy to take) puff.