Vaping Alcohol: A Phenomenon that Needs Extinguishing

Every industry experiences a paradigm-shifting revolution, and tobacco is no different. It is, however, one of the few stalwarts that has resisted amending for centuries. All that changed when vaporizers took the market by storm. Beginning in the late 2000s and picking up tremendous momentum in the current decade, vaping as it is known has become an international phenomenon that shows no sign of receding.

While that spells potential trouble for stodgy "Big Tobacco" firms, the sleeker and more relevant vaping industry has carved out a very respectable status among consumers and business experts. More importantly, it caught the attention of the medical community, and not necessarily in a negative manner. According to a British public health study, vaping is exponentially safer than its traditional counterpart.

When enjoyed responsibly, vaping produces a smoking experience that is wholly distinct from conventional platforms. Better yet, the resultant vapes are much more tolerable -- pleasant, even -- to nonsmoking passersby.

Despite the benefits of vaping in the prescribed manner, there are those that are willing to push the edge. The combustible mix of youthful energy and the mischievous deployment of technology has led to another phenomenon -- vaping alcohol.

At first glance, the concept is actually ingenious. Rather than drinking a bottle of booze and waiting a period of time to feel its effect, vaping alcohol sidesteps the entire process. There's no drinking involved, nor the slow degradation of mental faculties. Instead, users take a "hit" of alcohol, drawing immediately into the pure effects of the substance.

The experience is both swift and surreal, a concoction of pulsating clarity and complete and utter delusion. Those that are too young to legally drink are clamoring for this new high. Vaping alcohol is unlike any other artificially induced rush. It is also incredibly dangerous.

A big selling point of vaping alcohol -- often through expensive vaporizers known as "vapshots" -- is the promise of sickness-free drunkenness. That alone could cause millions across all demographics to sign up. But while it's true that the alochol never filters into the stomach and liver -- and therefore, resulting in zero morning sickness -- that is actually a reason not to engage in this behavior.

By vaping alcohol, a user is directly "injecting" alcohol into the bloodstream. That causes the immediate high and the euphoric sensations. It also greatly increases the risk of alcohol poisoning. In the traditional method of alcohol consumption, an excess amount leads to an involuntary expulsion. This process, while physically painful, helps prevent the body from poisoning. Without this reaction, spring break would be saturated with body bags.

Alcohol vaporizers unnaturally skips the biological functioning of our anatomy by converting a liquid state into a gaseous one. This allows the alcohol to "stick" to the internal channels of the human body, potentially causing serious harm. It is very much like a microwave oven, which heats food through radiation, but at the expense of killing all nutrients within the food. It is an unnatural way of cooking, which is why it is far more preferable to cook over a non-radiating heat source.