Most of the focus in quit-smoking research is on the initial chemical withdrawal. What’s far less understood is the power of associations, which is the part of addiction responsible for those times you suddenly feel like a cigarette when you’re happy, sad, drinking a cup of coffee, in a specific location, or after a meal. Those are all moments that feel incomplete, that you’ve trained your brain to associate with cigarettes.

Two separate problems wearing one coat

Regular smokers both form two separate addictions simultaneously. Described by long-term smokers as equally difficult to break as the physical dependence on nicotine, are the behavioral cues and ritual of smoking.

The habitual action of smoking – the hand-to-mouth motion, the feeling of taking a break, the sight of the curling smoke – those sensory and physical elements can become just as much a part of addiction as the neurochemical dependence. These are not elements that can be addressed through the patches and gum that make up the current smoking cessation market.

The trend the industry should pay attention to is that as vaping and smoke-free products continue to evolve, they are likely to become more effective at managing these habitual, behavioral addiction elements. Initial e-cigarettes weren’t necessarily designed with this in mind but still stumbled into creating a viable solution simply because they mimicked parts of the smoking habit well enough. It’s where many heat-not-burn or oral tobacco-derived nicotine products are pushing right now.

Replicating the sensory experience without the stimulant

An underrated aspect of e-liquid design is the ability to formulate a “throat hit” efficiently, even without the nicotine. High propylene glycol, menthol, or koolada draw can be nearly the same between a nicotine and no-nicotine version of the same flavor. Most of that satisfaction sensation isn’t actually the drug, it’s the texture of vaping.

This matters because it removes the last technical argument for why the transition to a zero nic vape has to feel like a downgrade. The sensory feedback loop – flavor, throat feel, visible vapor – can be preserved completely. What changes is what’s dissolved in the liquid.

The step-down methodology

The best way to help quitters using vaping as a transfer method is practicing a weaning process. Less milligrams of nicotine across a period of time, that’s usually weeks to a month, without changing any other variable. The device remains the same, the flavor, and the routine. The body gets used to smaller doses of nicotine without interrupting the habit.

Then, when ready, use the zero nic vapes. For those who followed the step-down method, the transition is rarely harder in the most rewarding way. The habit is still intact. But the drug is gone.

This works better because it doesn’t force someone to solve two problems simultaneously. Tackle the chemical problem first, then let the habit become smaller and fade.

Functional vaping and the wellness shift

A related but separate trend is the development of products not based on nicotine. B12, melatonin, caffeine, chamomile – these and other compounds are being considered by manufacturers who see potential in aerosolization as a delivery mechanism for supplements and wellness ingredients. The sub-ohm hardware designed to produce the maximum amount of vapor and flavor possible lends itself surprisingly well to these functional ingredients.

This isn’t harm reduction in the classic sense but a fundamentally different business proposition: the end user isn’t a smoker looking to stop, but rather someone who enjoys the sensory experience and merely wants the device to provide some kind of benefit in addition to taste. The hand-to-mouth dopamine response isn’t being replaced or removed, just repurposed to a functional end.

The ultimate outcome as to whether these products will become backed by genuine clinical evidence or remain a lifestyle product for a niche group of consumers is yet to be revealed. However, in the context of the evolution of the industry away from its past incarnation as a simple substitute for tobacco, it sets an example.

Where the market is actually going

The vaping market has expanded significantly to include more people who vape aside from smokers, who are not even trying to quit tobacco. Social vapers are estimated to be a considerable proportion of the total number of vapers in the market.

They vape for the fun of it, they enjoy the taste, the vapor, and everything about vaping except the health implications and non-health-related negatives of smoking.

They don’t need stimulants like nicotine, they don’t need something to calm them down, they certainly don’t need something that makes their heart race. And they just enjoy what vaping offers their senses, and good for them. They’re not hurting anyone, or even themselves.

Pressure from this new demographic of non-smoker customers, as counterintuitive as it may sound, makes a nicotine-free future more possible than we likely imagined a few years back. Perhaps the vehemence of the quitters against products that aren’t intended to quit on something underlines their awareness of this point but regardless, those companies that don’t quit focus on quitting smokers will end up having to anyway. Because that is what the market is starting to demand of it.