Harm masked as help: vending vape addiction inside our SUD treatment programs

A close colleague of mine who runs a nonprofit in our field recently forwarded a sales pitch from the company The Detox Solution . This company sells nicotine vending machines to be placed within substance use treatment facilities. On the Detox Solution website, the slogan to promote the placement of these machines is “Recovery is hard enough.” To sell their vape, they cite the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a study on cigarettes showing cessation is associated with a 42% higher likelihood of recovering from substance use disorder. That study did not consider vaping . We know that tobacco use is associated with a heightened risk of relapse among individuals in recovery. The evidence is not there to support the claim that shifting the delivery device to vape supports recovery. There is a growing body of literature showing that vaping is deleterious to overall health and may be deleterious to long‐term recovery from substance use disorders (SUD) by maintaining nicotine dependence and the repeated engagement of neural reward and reinforcement systems that overlap with those involved in other addictions.