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Hello everyone, it's hard to vape in Europe

umbre18

New Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
4
Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to say hello to this vaping community. I live in Belgium and have been vaping for about 7 years. I started with the fist ecig models which where leaking and often burning the cotton wick. Then I made my way to the more moden sub-ohm devices. Its only then that I could truly almost abandon cigarettes. I started to make my own eliquid too.

But I say "almost stop smoking cigarettes" for a clear reason. While actively vaping my own ejuice on various sub-ohm devices, I still craved a real cigarette regularly. Also, all the issues with leaking, ecigs opening in your pocket and liquid splashing all around or technical problems with the mod and its batteries have all annoyed me immensely.

My actual "hurrah" moment happened when I tried the Juul while vising Tel-Aviv a year ago. This small, sleek device packed a whole lot of nicotine. Also, it didn't produce that much cloud, which is perfect for discrete vaping in my opinion. The pod system was so easy to use. I immediately bought many pod packs before leaving Israel because I learned it was mosly only available in the US.

Of course I needed to reorder pods soon if I wanted to continue juuling. I was able to order some pods from some US websites, I got sold fake Juul pods through e-Bay, got a package rejected by customs and had an order just disappear too! Luckily I needed to go to the US for a business trip 3 months later. So on my voyage I collected about 30 packs pods along the way. I wanted to bring back even more but I still was bit wary of customs...

So I've been vaping my stash peacefully while all around the world vaping regulations were set in motion and being applied to countries in the European Unon. For me, the EU's TPD (Tobacco Products Directive) was terrible. The reason is that it limited to 20mg per ml the amount of nicotine permited to exist in ejuice. It actually meant that what I was doing was illegal because Juul pods contain 59mg/ml of nicotine!

The regulators didn't seem to understand that nicotine salts are actually always higher mg's. But the devices used to vape them are much weaker than sub-ohm ecigs. Therefore the amount of vape actually being inhaled is also much smaller...

In the meantime, in the US people where only talking about how teenagers where using the Juul and about how addictive the "kid friendly" ejuices such as mango or creme brule where (my actual favorites although I'm far from being a teenager). This ultimately obliged Juul to stop supplying shops the fruity flavors. Therefore they will not be available for me to buy anymore (you can only buy them in the US through Juul's website).

So I've thought long and hard about how to find worthy replacement for the Juul. I wanted a similar device with similar performance. And I needed to get ejuices to the EU. So I finally settled on a similar looking device called the Rubi (Kandypens). It seems like a nice product.

For my nicotine salts I have a good friend of mine who lives in Switzerland (this country is not part of the EU thanks god :) and he orders them for me. In two weeks I'll get them.

So all this to say Hello but also to present in what kind of crazy world we live here and how difficult it is for some to just vape. It seems everything is done just to prevent vaping freely. Cigarettes, on the other hand are available just everywhere. I also want to reach out to people in a similar situation. Please share your stories.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Some people have imported 72mg nicotine salt from outside Europe, but it seems to be a grey area as to whether or not it’s legit to do this. I’ve not tried the juul but it seems to me the key to it’s success is the high strength salt liquid. There are many refillable pod systems that perform very well and allow you to fill them with liquid of your choice.
 
Hi Umbre18 and welcome to the Planet. I’m in Belgium too so I know exactly what you are talking about. Importing or anything bought online is illegal so you will have to think about that but I see you have a good friend that helps you out.
I prefer rta’s with salts to pods but that’s a personal preference.
 
Blimey - I thought I could waffle on.....

everybody vapes their own way & stuff has improved every year after year

But I think I can safely say - after 2.5 years I don't ever think about going back or craving a cigarette at all
but as I said we all vape differently and our experiences vary from person to person etc....

I'll try to keep it brief for once - welcome to POTV
 
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