FEATURE
GRIMMGREEN :
THE MAN WHO HELPS SMOKERS QUIT
GrimmGreen speaks about his enduring passion for vaping and why he will always be a cheerleader for the industry
Words : Patrick Griffin
It has been six years since I last spoke to GrimmGreen , so it was great to catch up with him again for Vape Live . We met in 2015 at Vapefest Ireland and he was one of the very first people I interviewed for Vapouround . While many people and brands have come and gone in that time , he has stayed the course and is one of the best-known names in the vaping world . YouTube is the platform on which he built his reputation and his unending passion for helping smokers quit is what has propelled him to the success he enjoys today . GrimmGreen has amassed more than 83 million views on YouTube where he has 390,000 subscribers and the numbers keep on climbing . On Twitter he describes himself as a professional tobacco control advocate and says simply : “ I help smokers quit .” When we met in Dublin , the US was the vaping capital of the world and all the big names in the industry seemed to be based there . Now vaping is under attack from politicians , special interest groups and the media and the entire US federal regulatory process is in disarray . So I asked him … what went wrong ?
“ It ’ s a mess right now ,” he said , adding : “ The US vape industry got too big , too quick and then politicians got involved and suddenly it wasn ’ t just about getting smokers to quit anymore . “ Politics can take something really simple and make it really overly complicated , which is what happened in the United States .” He said constant warnings from politicians and the media about the ‘ youth vaping epidemic ’ scared parents , despite the data showing that the opposite was true . “ We currently have the lowest youth smoking rates in the history of our country . “ Between 2019 and 2020 , youth vaping had already dropped something like 20 per cent in the United States . “ It ’ s crazy that this didn ’ t get reported but we constantly hear about youth vaping , youth uptake and youth epidemic , regardless of what the actual data says .” He said testimonials from vapers telling how they stopped smoking were vital for getting the message across to the lawmakers , parents and non-smokers alike . “ If you have your chance to do a testimonial for anybody then do it . Tell your story . Share your experience . It is an amazingly powerful
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