A recent study in Wales about how teenagers are starting smoking using e-cigarettes must be heart warming for the tobacco companies and their share holders.
After years of embarrassing climbdowns and admissions the tobacco industry appears to be cleaning up its act and selling something that will not actually harm you.
Really?
It took years to get the tobacco industry to admit smoking was harmful and then further years to admit smoking was addictive. This put the industry in a more and more awkward position, less and less easy to justify their contribution to society.
Then came the invention of the e-cigarette: a non toxic, socially acceptable way of selling nicotine. The e cigarette is now happily breathing new life into the industry having created a product that appears to pull the rug from beneath the anti-smoking league. No more cancerous chemicals or passive smoking, pure enjoyment wherever and whenever.
So what is there to complain about if e-cigarettes are so wonderful?
Well, the problem is that young people are still getting addicted to nicotine as evidenced by the study in Wales. They are attracted by the idea that you can smoke with no consequence, avoiding the lectures and dark looks from health campaigners: what could be better than a guilt-free, cancer free smoke?
However the fact is that once addicted, the addict will spend a lifetime 'needing' their cigarettes and will be at a loss without their dose of nicotine.
Social gatherings, relaxation moments, break-times, meal-times, celebrations, going down the pub, getting down to work, waiting for trains, making a phone call; all these situations and more will require a little nicotine hit to find satisfaction or focus. Once you are hooked all the simple pleasures in life become wrapped up with smoking, all the important moments combine with a cigarette. It may not kill you but it undermines your freedom, it enslaves you.
The e-cigarette for young smokers is a trojan horse. It appears to be a gift but in reality is bringing more addicts into the market place.
The good news?
Well hypnotherapists will continue making a living helping e-cigarette smokers kick the habit.
Albeit after the smoker has blown tens of thousands of pounds over a period of twenty years of going through daily withdrawal pangs.
Do visit my webpage on stopping smoking here at Hypnotherapy In London.
Or my stop smoking in London Blog.
Or watch my short video introduction to using hypnotherapy to quit smoking