If you live in the UAE and are thinking about making the switch to vaping, this guide is for you. Across the world, vaping has proven to be a life-changing harm reduction alternative for millions of former smokers – and since the UAE fully legalized vaping in 2019, you are now free to buy the vape kit of your choice from Premium Vape Dubai or another vape shop.
If you’re a smoker in the UAE and are thinking about switching to vaping, this article is your step-by-step guide. You’re about to learn everything that you need to know to make the switch as enjoyable as it can be.
Table of Contents
What Is Vaping?
Let’s begin with a quick introduction to what vaping is and how it works. If you’re an adult smoker and either can’t quit or don’t want to quit, vaping is for you. Vaping supplies nicotine to the body in the form of a flavored vapor that you inhale. Because the body can absorb nicotine very rapidly through the lungs, people generally find vaping far more satisfying than traditional nicotine replacement products. In addition, while the safest option is not to use nicotine at all, researchers generally agree that the potential risk posed by vaping is far less than that posed by smoking. E-cigarettes reduce or eliminate tar and many of the other known harmful compounds present in cigarette smoke.
What Type of Vape Kit Should I Buy?
For reasons we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly, the best type of vaping kit to buy in the UAE is one that you can fill yourself. Among new vapers, refillable pod-based e-cigarettes are consistently earning the highest marks these days. That’s because they’re extremely small and portable while also being very simple to use.
Using a pod system generally works like this:
- You charge the battery by connecting it to your computer using the USB cable included in the package.
- You use a bottle of e-liquid to fill the pod. Depending on the pod system’s design, you access the pod’s filling hole either by removing the pod’s top plastic cap or by opening a rubber stopper. Always leave a little room for air at the top when filling a pod. That helps to prevent leaking and gurgling.
- You puff on the device to generate vapor unless you have a device with a manual activation button. If your vaping device has an airflow sensor for puff-based activation, make sure that you always puff gently. If you puff as firmly with a vaping device as you would when smoking a cigarette, you’ll overwhelm that device’s capacity to manage the airflow and will end up getting e-liquid in your mouth.
What Should I Know About Vaping Before I Start?
If you want to have a great experience as a new vaper, there are two very important things that you should know before you start.
- E-liquid comes in many different nicotine strengths, and it’s important to choose the right nicotine strength for your needs and for the type of vaping device that you’re using. In general, the smaller your vaping device, the higher your nicotine strength should be. With a small pod-based vaping device, the ideal nicotine strength for a recent convert from smoking is usually around 50 mg/ml. If the nicotine strength of your e-liquid is too high, you’ll experience throat irritation and will find vaping unpleasant. If the nicotine strength is too low, you’ll experience powerful cravings for cigarettes even if you vape constantly. Pay attention to what your body tells you and adjust your nicotine strength if necessary.
- The first instinct of almost every new vaper is to buy an e-liquid with “tobacco” in the name. Since you’re a smoker, your natural desire is to look for a vape juice that tastes like the cigarettes you’ll be giving up. The truth, however, is that tobacco e-liquids are actually some of the least popular flavors in the vaping industry. E-liquid companies use food-grade flavors that are the same as the flavors used by candy, snack and beverage makers, which means that vape juice can taste remarkably similar to the things that you eat and drink every day. E-liquids intended to taste like fruits and candies can be incredibly delicious. Tobacco e-liquids, on the other hand, taste nothing like cigarettes. You’re most likely to enjoy vaping if you experiment with many different flavors.
How Does the Law Treat Vaping in the UAE?
In the UAE, vaping products are considered tobacco products from a legal standpoint. What that means is that the laws banning public smoking in most areas in the UAE also apply to vaping. You can’t vape in sports facilities, churches or educational institutions. You also can’t vape indoors in public buildings or in cars when children are present. Since public smoking is banned almost everywhere in the UAE, you should generally assume that you can’t vape unless you are in a private building or a designated smoking area.
Is Vaping Expensive in the UAE?
Vaping – like smoking – is very expensive in the UAE. That’s because the UAE applies a “sin tax” of 100 percent to the retail price of all tobacco products and all vaping products. Essentially, that means you’re paying double the normal price every time you buy a bottle of e-liquid or a box of replacement pods or coils. That’s one reason why it’s so important to ensure that you’re using an e-liquid with the right nicotine strength for your needs. If the nicotine strength that you’re using is too low, you’ll use more e-liquid than you need to, and that’ll inflate your cost to vape.
If you want to keep your costs down when buying vape gear in the UAE, you need to buy as little e-liquid as possible. To do that, you need to ensure that your nicotine strength is suitably high. In addition, it’s wise to avoid vaping devices with pre-filled pods or cartridges. You’ll find that it’s dramatically more affordable to buy e-liquid by the bottle rather than buying it in the form of pre-filled pods.
