The “Evils” of Nicotine, JUUL and the Youth ‘Epidemic’    

Nicotine in tobacco leaves has the chemical composition of a salt. Salt is made up of a chemical reaction that has a positive charge (Acid) and negative charge (Base). Nicotine’s chemical nature is a weak base and made up of negatively charged particles. As a base, it seeks to find positively charged particles (Protons) to find stability and become Ionized. Nicotine in tobacco leaves or ions is not the most effective way of delivering nicotine into our bodies because ions have a harder time moving across organic membranes and are not easily vaporized. This is where freebasing comes in. Phillip Morris found that if the nicotine was de-protonated (via ammonia) or to remove its positive charge, it can go back to its free state where it will be much easier to travel across membranes in our bodies. In a nutshell, nicotine in its freebase form makes it more bioavailable to your lungs and to your brain which makes it more potent. H/t Ruthless Vapor This is why (thanks to @plopnl) the throat hit from freebase is said to “hit like a train” at higher levels, and particularly in ‘better’ devices and also why a nicotine salt generally feels ‘smoother’, while still giving that (for some) much needed ‘kick’. Does that mean there should be a nicotine cap? Well, considering that many vapers – particularly those who took this survey (H/T @VapingIT) – a number of comments stated starting at 20mg or above. According to ASH, 10% of vapers in the UK used a concentration greater than 18mg/ml (yet, they lobbied furiously for the limit anyway) in 2016, and in 2018 Dr Farsalinos along with Dr Russell published the results of the US Flavour Survey, which also included initial nicotine levels. While the most popular initial level was 1-6mg/ml, in a close second it was 18-24mg/ml. 25 and above garnered 3.3 and 0.6 per cent (25-49, and 50mg/mL or above respectively). In essence, the concentration used by an individual is tailored to the individual. Something that a number of e-liquid vendors seem to have forgotten considering that most don’t seem to carry anything over 6mg – particularly in the UK. I get it, the consumer has driven the demand for lower concentration liquids. The problem with that drive, is that the market isn’t really suitable for new switchers. The trouble is, this has been coming for a while. As far as absorption rates goes, it entirely depends on the delivery mechanism. It is well known that cigarettes deliver a rapid spike of nicotine which degrades pretty quickly. On the other hand, freebase nicotine (which, you’ll remember, is the cornerstone of cigarettes) delivered via a vapour product isn’t absorbed as quickly. It does, in fact, take substantially longer to reach similar levels to cigarettes. This is where JUUL stepped in. In the now, pod mods aren’t new. There’s plenty of choices out there – which is a good thing by the way. But it all started, and I mean really started with JUUL. Which is one of the reasons why we’re having the “nic-limit” discussions (again), and why US health authorities are having a shit-fit about a few percentage points among the youth. As this article points out, JUUL had a head-start. Nicotine salts. US JUUL pods contain 50mg/mL, while the EU variant contains 20mg/mL. Guess which side has the “youth epidemic”? Yep. The US does. But. There’s a whole can of worms that needs to be opened first. Y’ see, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids kicked off the moral panic about JUUL in 2018 with this, featuring news articles and tweets from 2015 – no doubt CfTFK were watching JUUL closely, along with the youth vaping rates and waiting for the right time to go all panicky. There are claims, and I say claims as I have yet to see concrete evidence, that JUUL deliberately used nicotine salt at high concentrations to induce ‘euphoria’ (more on this later) and ‘hook’ the youth on nicotine. This paper (Benowitz et al 1988) suggests that nicotine intake from cigarettes, snuff, and chewing tobacco all see a rapid uptick in blood nicotine concentration within the first 30 minutes of use. The outlier, of course, being nicotine gum that also reaches a peak at around 30 minutes but remains relatively consistent throughout the next 90 minutes. This blood nicotine level (nicotine blood plasma level) ties in nicely with the self-titration (Dawkins et al 2016) theory. After all, and as the infamous Michael Russell once said “people smoke for the nicotine but they die from the tar”. So a rapid uptick in nicotine blood plasma is just fine and dandy for those that want it. Sadly for us, there can be no direct comparison between the nicotine consumption from cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Mostly, as Dr Farsalinos points out, there is no standardised unit of consumption. In addition, absorption from ‘second-generation’ devices is, in fact, lower than cigarettes. Sourced  from: factsdomatter.co.uk "A really informative read when its broken down like this"