Opinion: Vaping Is A Dangerous Gateway To Becoming A Guy Who Hangs Out At Almost Paradise Tobacco

Recently, a lot has been said about Vaping: that it’s dishonestly marketed towards teens, that it causes lung diseases and even death. Yet, there’s a pressing issue lurking just underneath the surface, something no one is talking about. Vaping is now a dangerous gateway to becoming the type of guy who hangs out at Almost Paradise Tobacco.

With no intent to buy anything. No special reason at all. Just got woke up and thought, “I’ll see what’s up with the boys at Paradise today.”

Loitering outside the building, blasting Brockhampton and Ziggy Marely from their iPhone speakers. Aimlessly browsing products, making mental notes to come back tomorrow and check out the new “Dr. Dabber” vape kit.

The terrifying thing is that it only takes one hit of a vape pen for these things to happen—for a promising young person to suddenly wake-up and find themselves on a first name basis with every employee at Almost Paradise.

“It’s crazy how fast it happened,” said Jonah Bearinger. “One of my friends bought a vape pen just to try it out. Before we knew it, we were both walking down to Paradise three times a week, just to chat with random people and talk about the craziest new e-juice flavors. I think we need help.”

It’s a tragedy that so many UI students have fallen prey to this cycle. I don’t even recognize some of my good friends from Freshman year that ended up vaping. They’re wearing flat-bill hats, walking around saying things like “rip that fat cotton dude.”

Indeed, data shows that a startling 63% of daily vapers in Iowa City spend an average of 4 hours per week at Almost Paradise just kind of standing around, talking about whatever. Even more disturbing, nearly half of those vapors reported that they frequently commute to the vape shop via longboard.

It may seem hopeless, but staying informed about the potential dangers of vaping can save lives and prevent young people from self-identifying as frequent patrons of Almost Paradise.

Until we recognize that just one rip of a vape can lead young people down S Linn Street right up to the doors of a place like Almost Paradise Tobacco, people will continue to spend time at that ratchet place.

This article was brought to you buy Black & Gold Vapors