Thread by @ChaunceyGardner

OK, so... unlike nicotine:
- alcohol (and cannabis) intoxicate
- alcohol abuse actually DOES harm developing brains
- teen binge drinking causes 3,500 deaths every year

THREAD
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(2)
FAR fewer teens vape than drink. FAR fewer teens vape nicotine daily than binge drink.

It's very clear here, that vape firms do a FAR better job keeping their products away from teens than alcohol companies do.

So why the irrational #MoralPanic over teen nicotine vaping?

(3)
So... Why the irrational #MoralPanic over teen nicotine vaping?

I assume that's because 4 decades of tobacco control messaging have convinced the public and physicians that nicotine is FAR more harmful than alcohol or cannabis.
rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-l….

(4)
Seriously though... nicotine? Doesn't intoxicate. Slightly increases focus, attention and memory, while paradoxically reducing stress and anxiety.

Difficult to see how any of that is bad.
rsph.org.uk/about-us/news/…

(5)
But the 1988 @Surgeon_General report says, "The pharmacologic and behavioral PROCESSES that determine TOBACCO addiction are SIMILAR to those that determine addiction to drugs such as heroin and cocaine."
wwwn.cdc.gov/osh_pub_catalo….

(6)
Ever since 1988, based on the above statement (processes; tobacco; similar), people in tobacco control, and journalists, have been stating confidently that "nicotine is as addictive as heroin and cocaine."

That sounds like a harm. But it's a wild exaggeration.

(7)
So how dependence-forming is nicotine, really? Rats don't like it (it's super difficult to get them to push a lever for it, though they're happy to press the lever for cocaine).

(8)
...and the @US_FDA says, very clearly, that nicotine patches and nicotine gum are not dependence-forming or "subject to abuse."
federalregister.gov/documents/2013…

(9)
So... how is the pharmaceutical grade nicotine in a vape, #snus or nicotine pouch magically transformed into "highly addictive"...

...when the exact same molecule in nicotine patches and gum is not even dependence-forming?

Or is wild exaggeration now a public health tactic?

(10)
How is it possible for nicotine to be "highly addictive," but for US high school nicotine vaping to drop 60% in just two years?

(11)
Which it clearly did. Down by nearly 2/3rds in 2 years. The kids just quit. This is NOT consistent with "highly addictive" claims.

(12)
So... Did those kids quit vaping and switch to smoking to get their "highly addictive" nicotine fix? Woah. No.

Seriously no. US teen cigarette smoking has plummeted to 1.9%. Only 0.38% now smoke frequently (>20 days/month).

(13)
But maybe kids who vaped nicotine in high school will transition to cigarette smoking once they become young adults? No... That's wrong too.

Among all US adults, the age group with the steepest rate of smoking decline is - you guessed it - young adults.

(14)
So, basically, in the United States of America, smoking is dead. As this cohort of teens and young adults ages, smoking is dead.

And here's a little secret: Total teen nicotine use is lower now than at any time in the past 50 years.

(15)
Which brings us back to today. Again I ask, why is teen use of a mildly psychoactive drug (nicotine) which is no more harmful than caffeine, which they use far less today than at any time in the past 50 years, and use FAR less than alcohol, causing so much #MoralPanic?

(16/16)
Obviously, teens should not vape, drink or smoke. But only one of these things helps US adults quit using a deadly thing (cigarettes) that kills 480,000/year.

Alcohol? Legal. Cannabis? Lgalization is roaring ahead. Why is nicotine the new target in the War on Drugs?