What is Vaping?
Vaping is the term used to describe inhaling and exhaling aerosol, commonly known as vapour, produced by e-cigarette or a vaporizer.
People who smoke cigarettes are 'smokers', and people who use vape are 'vapers'. A very distinct difference between smoking an vaping is burning of tobacco, when a cigarette is smoked, the tobacco is burning and it undergoes combustion which produces many harmful gases, when vaping the ejuice in liquid form is heated to convert it into gaseous form, called vapor, very similar to when water is heated and it converts to steam, or water vapour.
Vaping has been growing in popularity since it was introduced in 2007 in US, Since then vaping has evolved and today you can find various types of vaporizer, suited for different type of vaping styles. These include Starter Kits, Vape Mods, Pod Systems etc.
The basic components of a vaporizer or e-cigarette are a mouth piece, a battery, a cartridge for e-liquid or ejuice and heating mechanism. Today in market you can find vapes where you can very precisely control the amount of power or voltage or temperature of the heating element, to get you desired vapor production.
Vaping in Pakistan
Vaping has been gaining popularity in Pakistan in last 3-4 Years, We started VapeNation in Late 2016, at that time vaping was a very new thing, and most people confused vaping with sheesha or hookah, which some still do. There were only a handful or vape stores at that time and very small variety available for consumers, but in past 2 years, vaping culture has grown rapidly, new vape shops and online stores have popped up, a lot of ex smokers have switched to a healthy vaping lifestyle.
Types of Vape Users in Pakistan
In my Observation, There are 2 distinct type of people who vape in Pakistan, One are who were or are smoking addicts, and found about vaping, researched it online or from friends, and tried it as a mean to quit smoking, they are knowledgeable about vaping and its pros and cons, the other are just trend followers, who vape only becuase they have seen other people vaping, they may or may not be smokers, and there motive is just to follow a trend and be cool.
Vaping Laws in Pakistan
There is no specific Law in Pakistan that allows or forbids Vaping, As of Today there are more than 20+ different vape stores online and retail operating in Pakistan, with some having multiple retail locations, All Ejuices are imported mainly imported from USA, UK and Malaysia, were as Most E-cigarette devices are imported from China or USA. Everything comes into Pakistan via proper legal Chanel, by paying Custom Duties and Taxes, and most of these vape stores are legal registered business and importers.
There have been cases of Police harassing people for vaping, and confiscating their vapes etc, but all of that is just normal illegal behaviour of Police to extort some money out of people. Most people in government departments that might come across e-cigarettes, like Airport Customs, Police, or Customs Office at Incoming Mail offices are very ill informed about e-cigarettes. They might stop you or your incoming package, with vary invalid arguments, In my experience the only way to get out of such situations is to talk to someone who might have knowledge of Vaping, becuase arguing with someone who has no distinction between a e-cigarette and Sheesha will only waste your time.
Biggest Issue Around Vaping in Pakistan
One of the biggest issue with regard to vaping industry in Pakistan is replica products. There are many vape stores in Pakistan that sell authentic original products, but there is a very high influx of replica products being sold in Pakistan, This include e-cigarette Brands and ejuice brands as well. All of these replicas are made in china and are of very poor quality. They can be bought for very cheap from China, and Many importers have flooded the markets with these replicas, and a newbie vapour can easily get fooled and buy these e-cigs or e-juices. I have come across fake SMOK Mods, Vaporesso, Joytech, and even Fake JUUL kits.
There are a very high number of Fake Naked ejuices, Fake Nasty Ejuices being sold. Mostly these are being sold by tobacco shops.
Customers buy these becuase they are cheap but it is very harmful for consumers, becuase you don't know what is in that ejuice, and the e-cigarettes have not passed any quality checks.
How to avoid Buying Counterfeit Vape Stuff.
All vape mod manufactures and eliquid companies are very much aware or this issue, becuase this not only exists in Pakistan, this issue of counterfeits items exists globally. Every Company has added special security features in their products so its is easy for consumer to identify Fakes from original. If you are in doubt you can google on how to check authenticity of a product and follow the procedure listed on Brands official website. I will try to add details on identifying Fakes on our website too.
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