Vaping comes with hefty cost
February 6, 2020
A recent national increase to the age required to purchase nicotine products has brought a new wave of interest in all things nicotine. In particular, the cost of nicotine products is a topic of discussion.
There is a higher financial investment that goes into vaping than one might initially think. To get started, a person must buy a kit outfitted with the vaporizer, mods which include coils and e-juice in bottles, pods or disposable vapes.
Jared Brown, an SDSU student who works at Roll N’ Smoke, says he spends around “$50 to $60 a month on nicotine products,” which includes a mixture of disposable vapes and pods.
In the past few months, Roll N’ Smoke has seen an increase in the purchase of disposable vapes rather than people buying new vape devices and pods. Brown says people are buying disposables out of convenience.
“It’s not like losing a $60 pod device,” Brown said. “Those big mods are out of fashion.”
At Roll N’ Smoke, disposable vapes run around $10 and, depending on the person, last about two days.
While pod devices are usually more expensive up front, people are still showing more interest in the disposables.
“In the long run, a pod device is way cheaper,” Brown said. “But a lot of people don’t want to invest in that.”
A student at SDSU, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they would spend around $30 to $35 a month on nicotine products. The student also owned a large mod that cost them around $50 to maintain. They have since quit vaping, which was largely due to the high expense and raised tobacco age.
“Especially since coming here, when money wasn’t very good, I would buy two packs of pods, which probably wasn’t the best decision,” the anonymous student said.
Some make the argument that vaping is more cost-effective than smoking — which it is — but that’s not why most people are making the switch. Rather, it’s because vape products are less stigmatized than cigarettes.
“The whole world has shifted away from cigarettes,” Brown said.
Fewer people are entertaining the thought of smoking cigarettes. Therefore, the cost difference between vape products and cigarettes would be incomparable, making much of the argument that vape devices are better than cigarettes irrelevant.
Regardless of this notion, vape products still rack up an impressive expense when factoring in all the elements that go into a vaping device.
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