by Carl V Phillips
Vaping, smoking, and other tobacco product use are routinely described as “addictive”. As I have pointed out repeatedly, this is a very misleading characterization. (You might recall my major essay – years in the making – on this topic from earlier this year. If you missed it and are reading this, you will definitely want to go read it.) The two sentence summary of the headline point is: All ‘official’ definitions of “addiction” hinge on the behavior being highly disruptive to someone’s functioning – work, social, etc. But tobacco product use has no such effects, at least not for more than a minuscule fraction of consumers.
So the fallback position, in the event that someone recognizes the problem with that word, is to say that tobacco product use produces dependence. But this is barely more accurate and is equally misleading. For those who use these products or advocate for their acceptance, to use of either of these words is to make the rhetorically and psychologically dangerous mistake of adopting the language of one’s oppressors. Continue reading
Tobacco harm reduction, anti-THR lies, and related topics 