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Comment by cuttysnark | Hacker News Reader

It’s weed. A whole cohort of people and kids are no longer drinking alcohol (like they did) or never really started because THC and/or CBD is now legal in vapes, gummies, drinks.

I visited Charleston and was surprised they’ve only legalized THC insofar as THC drinks are available at bars. But a lot of the young people were drinking cans of it instead of spiked seltzer, which was the only alcohol anyone was holding. No beer, no wine.

Similarly: they all were smoking computers—not a single analog cigarette in sight. Tobacco farmers in shambles?

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Tobacco has never been more lucrative. Between Zyn and vapes, they’re swimming in cash

Agreed. Synthetic nicotine has been around for awhile as well, which is much cheaper than sourcing the old fashioned way.

> Zyn and vapes

Those don't contain tobacco, nor nicotine derived from tobacco. I'd be surprised if tobacco farming was still lucrative, except maybe the fine stuff for cigars, but that was always a relatively small market compared to cheap cig tobacco.

TIL, I thought Tobacco was used as the source for nicotine. Is it all synthetic these days?

I'd be surprised if any one selling tobacco products were swimming in cash. Single use vapes are expensive compared to cost but there are tons of sellers. If you buy vape juice you can get something like the equivalent of 100 packs of cigarettes for $15. Vape shops jack up all the prices but there are 5 shops on every street and they always seem empty and I'm convinced they are mostly just laundering money.

> In December 2018, e-cigarette maker Juul gave its workers an average bonus of $1.3 million each

https://mashable.com/article/juul-employees-get--million-dol...

It's also the economy. Everything is expensive. Young people are less successful than ever before (at no fault of their own). When it costs $10 a beer with tax and tip, most young people simply can't afford to do that with any regularity.

It's also also competition. In 1970, your option was to stay home and watch one of three TV channels and that's it. Now, your options are literally to watch any movie ever made, watch any TV show ever made, or play any game ever made... all connected with your friends online.

It is a part of it, but it's not just weed. I would argue the economy is the most impactful factor here.

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