Dave Dorn is a trustee of the so-called New Nicotine Alliance (astonishingly, a Registered Charity in the UK). He claims that 80% of smokers who have taken up vaping have successfully switched from smoking because of what he calls the pleasure principle.

The gold necklace-wearing Dave gave a talk at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw in 2016. This was a ‘multi-stakeholder event [for those] with an interest in nicotine and its uses.’ The purpose of the conference seems to have been to promote e-cigarettes.

This is part of what he said:

The enjoyment that a smoker can have, the pleasure that a smoker can have from something which at the end of the day is not going to kill them. Something that presents less than 5% of the risk of smoking lit tobacco. The pleasure principle [holding up e-cigarette device] is what makes these things work. And this is why the Tobacco Products Directive in the EU, the FDA Deeming Regulations, all of which are concentrated on Quit! Quit! Quit! will fail. They – will – cause – death! They – will – cause earlier death because they do – not – allow for the pleasure principle. And that – for e-cigs – is the most important thing.

Death or pleasure—what a choice!

This is worth looking at in a little more detail. He also said, warming to his pleasurable theme, that some e-cigarettes taste absolutely gorgeous and give him more enjoyment than smoking did. The absolutely gorgeous taste presumably is not experienced through drinking the e-liquid because it indeed could cause death if you did this, so presumably he must be referring to the taste of the vapour in his mouth as he sucks it into his lungs.

It’s difficult to understand how you can perceive a taste in this way but it seems he has been doing this daily since 2009 instead of smoking. If you observe vapers, they suck at frequent if irregular intervals on their devices and a conservative estimate would be at least one hundred times a day. Now, is Mr Dorn saying that the reason he engages in this unnatural practice is because he gets pleasure from it? Does vaping produce in him a sense of bliss, a kind of ecstatic or orgasmic state so wonderful that he feels compelled to do it a hundred times or more every day for years on end?

In any case, he’s muddled about the idea of the pleasure principle. This theory was first propounded by Sigmund Freud, and he meant it as the instinct to obtain pleasure and avoid pain, particularly in babies and young children who seek immediate gratification of hunger and thirst. As the child matures this is tempered by the reality principle: the need to defer gratification and accept pain, if necessary. So Dorny means, not the pleasure principle, but merely pleasure.

Is pleasure in this context an illusion? And does it matter if it is? One patient said to me: ‘Maybe the pleasure of smoking is an illusion, but it’s a very nice illusion!’ But if smokers and vapers could understand why their perceived pleasure is illusory—and it’s easy enough for them to demonstrate this to themselves—would they be happy to carry on poisoning themselves for years on end?

My publisher, in the course of editing my book, Smoking is a Psychological Problem, made the interesting observation that some people claim to enjoy whipping themselves, so who am I to say they’re wrong?

This is a valid point. I would respond that there’s nothing wrong with self-flagellation if that is what adults wish to do. It may be harmful—the skin could be broken and infection set in—but the number of people involved is miniscule. I suppose there is a market for whips, but unlike smoking, it’s not a multi-billion dollar enterprise resulting in seven million deaths per year worldwide.

Therefore, if vaping is (almost) harmless and vapers are deluded that it’s pleasurable why not just let them pretend to enjoy themselves?

Pleasure is also hyped by the purveyors of other alternative ways of gratifying the need for nicotine, such as with the new product called IQOS. I picked up a partially used pack of these things lying on the ground. It contained two ‘HeatSticks’. They looked like thin short cigarettes including a filter. The pack I found was designated ‘Mint’ and indeed they did smell like a combination of mint and tobacco. But it also said on the pack: ‘Tobacco enjoyment with less smell and no ash.’ So that’s all right then.

Well, it’s not all right. It’s very far from all right. The gloss on the IQOS packet, ‘Tobacco enjoyment’, is false. Here’s why. There’s nothing pleasant or enjoyable about inhaling tobacco fumes. What happens is that when the nicotine in the fumes reaches the brain, the user is in an altered mental state with nicotine. Shortly thereafter, as the nicotine level starts to fall, he or she suffers (or is on the point of suffering) mildly unpleasant symptoms of drug withdrawal. It’s the relief of these symptoms by the next dose of nicotine that provides the illusion of transient pleasure. Let poor Dave Dorn try a flavoured but nicotine-free vape liquid to experience his absolutely gorgeous taste and see for how long he wants to keep doing it.

Apart from that, take one or two hundred sucks on an e-cigarette or an IQOS thingy every day for twenty years—and then let’s see what effect it has on your health.

Text © Gabriel Symonds