Despite the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act, vaping culture in India is thriving, visible even on live cricket broadcasts. The piece details how nicotine salts, smooth inhalation and the absence of a clear “end” to a vape session foster dependence. Because vaping is seen as less harmful and socially acceptable, users underestimate the risks, making quitting both psychologically and physically challenging.
Growing up in the '90s, the only devices most young adults carried were either the iPods, MP3 or a flip phone. Today, that rectangle in the pocket still exists. But it's more often than not a vape.
In the last few years, there's been a significant rise in people exhaling a discreet cloud of smoke that isn't coming from a traditional cigarette. Though, once the defining accessory amongst the class of cool and the rebellious, cigarettes seem to be leaning towards the loss of their cultural cachet. The arch-nemisis is vape pen.
A battery-powered pocket-sized device, a vape is an easily concealable, disposable and rechargeable tool designed to heat a liquid containing nicotine salts, fruit flavourings and other chemicals into aerosol inhaled.
Though the latest fad on the grid worldwide, in India e-cigarettes are strictly banned under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act (PECA), 2019. Yet, step outside and one may find people vaping casually. The brightly coloured devices light up with the a drag is inhaled, adding a visual cue that traditional smokers never had.
If anything, vaping has seeped into spaces once considered unlikely—Cricket, the holy sport for Indians. Recently, Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Riyan Parag was caught on a live broadcast casually vaping in the dressing room during a match against Punjab Kings. Naturally, since the match that took place on Tuesday, viral clips are circulating online of the captain sitting next to teammates Dhruv Jurel and Yashasvi Jaiswal taking a puff from his palm-sized vape. Earlier, even ex-Australian captain Aaron Finch who plays for CSK and AB de Villiers who plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have been spotted vaping during IPL matches.
As shocking as it is it to see sportsman breach a major code of conduct by engaging in a vice so openly, it also underscores just how "normal" vaping culture has come to become in India despite the ban.
But normal doesn’t mean harmless or easy to walk away from.
E- cigarettes or vapes are often marketed as solutions to one the world's persistent public health crises: tobacco use, which claims an estimated eight million lives globally each year. Vapes originally designed for smoking cessation were considered "less harmful" alternative to traditional cigarette and deliver nicotine without tobacco combustion that leads to lung cancer.
Yet health experts have pointed out that many users report use of vape has lead to more nicotine consumption through vaping. While neither is better than the other, unlike cigarettes which have a natural endpoint, vapes don't. There is no finishing line, no stubbed-out butt signalling you're done. You can take a pudd, put it away, and pick it up again minutes later. This creates a pattern of constant, low-level nicotine intake that risks rewiring habit loops.
Nicotine salts, commonly used in modern vape liquids, allow for higher concentrations of nicotine to be inhaled more smoothly. The hit is quicker, cleaner, and often stronger. There’s also a psychological sleight of hand at play. Because vaping is often perceived as “less harmful” than smoking, users tend to lower their guard. The urgency to quit simply isn’t as strong.
Importantly, not everyone who vapes is a former smoker. According to a 2019 report more than 3.3 million people in India are vaping. Whereas, another international health report claimed an estimated 8 million lives around the world per year due to vape use.
Today, for a significant number of teens and young adults, e-cigarettes are the gateway to nicotine use. Many are drawn in by the variety of flavours, design of the device or peer pressure. For them, vaping isn't a substitute and quitting something that was never framed as dangerous to begin with feel even more abstract.
What makes vaping particularly difficult to quit is how seamlessly these symptoms map onto everyday life. You're not just fighting a chemical dependency but also navigating a behavioural pattern. The same device that delivers nicotine also trains the hand-to-mouth fixation, the pause in a conversation, the reflex of reaching for something when focus dips or stress rises. It is also goes beyond the physical act of holding a vape or cigarette and serves as a coping mechanism for stress, anxiety, and boredom. The repetitive motion becomes a source of comfort, offering a momentary distraction from life's challenges.
Perhaps, what makes vape addiction harder to quit for the new generation of nicotine users is also the fact that vaping is not pushed to the margins of public life yet. Unlike cigarettes which were always considered harmful, vaping has slipped into the mainstream without the stigma that smoking socially carries with it. Instead, vape sits comfortably in bedrooms, clubs, dressing rooms, and unfortunately even cricket dugouts as if its absorbed into the everyday language of youth, sport and aspiration.