The downside of vaping is that the flavoured vape products are being marketed at teenagers. IIRC smoking was at a very low rate for youth after decades of improvements and then vaping has seen nicotine use rise in this demographic.
To help smokers quit, vaping only needs to temper their physical and psychological cravings and be in the same realm of affordability, availability and ease-of-use. Selling cotton candy vape juice delivered with a apple-esque vaporizer and slick ads & commercials is not to "help smokers quit"
Some of the bigger vaping companies are owned by tobacco companies. e.g. Juul.
> IRC smoking was at a very low rate for youth after decades of improvements and then vaping has seen nicotine use rise in this demographic.
Okay, but smoking and nicotine use are very different metrics. Looking at number of smokers + number of vapers is a bit like looking at the number of drunk drivers + number of people biking without helmets. There's a heavy relative harm weighting factor missing if you just sum the numbers, especially if kids aren't vaping tocopheryl acetate or diacetyl.
Some parties strongly suspect that vaping is a gateway to smoking, but the studies I've seen are contradictory (granted, I haven't looked in depth). After all I was told about marijuana leading to crack cocaine use as a kid, I'm strongly skeptical of any gateway hypothesis that's not supported by rigorous studies. Rebellious kids tend to do all kinds of things, generally starting with less risky things, and if your study doesn't control for this, your study is going to show a causative link between stepping on sidewalk cracks at age 5 and using crack cocaine at age 17.
On the one hand, we do want to protect people from stupid decisions in their wild youth. On the other hand, the gateway hypothesis is the best argument I've seen against vaping, and it doesn't look like a good argument from where I'm sitting.
I think there's also a lot of hysteria that fruity vapes are targeted at kids. There must be tons of people over 21 who secretly like wine coolers and secretly like fruity vapes.
I've never been a cigarette smoker, and have only smoked a handful of cigars, but I've tried vaping a few times and found it pleasant. If, in another decade, vaping turns out to be no more harmful than my occasional single malt habit or my grilled red meat habit, I might take up vaping regularly at the age of 50. I get plenty of exercise, watch my weight, practice intermittent fasting, and spend a bit of my health budget on a small number of vices.