Youth and e-cigarettes, a debate that is gaining momentum in Europe after having given rise to numerous regulations in the United States. Is vaping a solution for the teen smoker? According to Bernard Antoine, psychologist and addictologist: « e-cigaretteis like coming out of prison with an electronic bracelet, it moves the problem, if not to solve it« .
THE E-CIGARETTE OR THE THEORY OF THE "SNAKE THAT BITES ITS TAIL"
At our colleagues' Femme Actuelle“, Two specialists answered questions about youth and its link with e-cigarettes. If one would have expected a talk about harm reduction, it is not and Bernard Antoine, psychologist and addictologist seems for its part categorical: « THEE-Cigaretteis like coming out of prison with an electronic bracelet, it moves the problem, if not to solve it« .
First, « because studies on the long-term effects of e-cigarettes are still opaque« , says Bernard Antoine. And even scientists would finally judge it " out of danger "she keeps addicts addicted to their behavioral addiction. That? « It must be understood that smoking are addicted to a set of parameters, primer the professional. Among them, the MAOI, antidepressant present in the cigarette, the Nicotine, tobacco but also and especially behaviors, situations (coffee, aperitifs) and reflexes"
If we eliminate the MAOI and perhaps tobacco and nicotine (depending on the options you choose with your e-cigarette) - and which are already a big step for smokers -, we still keep the addiction to gestures. Gestures, which themselves, gradually bring or bring back to traditional cigarettes. A real "Snake that bites its tail" according to him.
Christie Nester, child psychiatrist nods. Especially since the problem today is that the schema evolves. « Adults use the electronic cigarette to quit, when today, young people start there. And if we take the example of Juul - which now gives a fashion dimension to vapotage, once nerdy in the young - all of its flasks have the same dosage of nicotine. This cigarette is absolutely not made to encourage people to decline and then stop« .
