Make New York Post a Preferred Source Gen Z thinks cigarettes are good for you.
Young smokers are bringing the cancer sticks back, and not just because they want to look like Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. Many Gen Zers claim smoking cigarettes actually makes them feel “healthier” — especially those trying to kick vapes, who insist making the switch cleared up their health issues.
As one youngster on TikTok puts it, cigarettes are the “plant-based alternative” for vaping.
Currently on Reddit, Gen Z members ask whether cigarettes might actually be better than disposable vapes or if vaping is really all that much safer than a Marlboro. Meanwhile, on Instagram, accounts like @cigfluencer continue to worship at the altar of Joe Camel.
Ironically, many Zoomer smokers say cigarettes were their gateway to vaping — and now they’re switching back to traditional cigarettes, just as tobacco stocks are reaching five-year highs. Philip Morris International is up more than 100% over the past five years, while British American Tobacco has gained almost 73%.
Everest Simmons, a Gen Zer from Los Angeles, told The Post she picked up cigarettes at 13 before switching to vaping in her 20s when JUUL, a brand of electronic cigarette, exploded in popularity.
“When I was vaping, one-third of the breaths I was taking were hitting my vape,” Simmons recalled. “I noticed it becoming harder to catch my breath on walks or hikes. My skin looked duller, and my eyes looked dull.”
When she fractured a bone in her hand, six weeks passed without healing and her doctor explained that nicotine constricts blood vessels, restricting circulation and stalling recovery.
Simmons tossed her vapes — but when cravings hit, she chose traditional cigarettes instead of a nicotine patch and a doctor-approved plan to quit.
“At my next checkup, I had significant healing,” Simmons recalled. “I’m not saying cigarettes are healthy, but people’s relationship with cigarettes is more sustainable than with a vape.”
The 26-year-old said after quitting vapes for cigarettes, her brain fog lifted and her energy returned. She also felt her lung capacity improve significantly — along with her social life.
“Vaping is isolating — everyone sits in corners with their own device,” Simmons explained. “Cigarettes bring people together. Someone steps onto the porch, others follow, and suddenly you’re having real conversations without phones.”
Simmons posted a TikTok about her switch from vaping to cigarettes that reached 4.2 million views and over 650k likes. She isn’t the only Gen Zer to preach the benefits of regular smokes on TikTok.
Mollie Fraser posted her “controversial opinion” that cigarettes are healthier than vapes, and thousands of young smokers agreed in the comments, saying it’s a case of organic vs. chemical.
“I never woke up 15 times a night to hit a cigarette,” one user wrote.
“Vapes probably started out being a healthier alternative but the convenience and how discreet it is made a lot of people’s addictions much worse,” wrote another.
Another video from vlogger Cora Hamilton says cigarettes are “spiritually healthy.” One fan agreed, saying her cigarette break was a moment to “touch grass.”
The Post spoke to multiple young smokers who say cigarettes have been better for them than vaping — but they asked to remain anonymous because, tellingly, they didn’t want their parents to discover they had started smoking.
A 22-year-old New Yorker said that because cigarettes require more effort to buy, light and smoke than a vape, they get used less often — which he said was healthier than using a vape all the time.
“I actually think [cigarettes] are low-key better,” said the young HR associate, “because you have the shame of smoking a cigarette, but you can vape sneakily, which leads you to consuming more nicotine.”
But experts caution that switching to cigarettes gives smokers an “illusion of control” that just excuses the addiction.
Rebecca Boone, a licensed counselor specializing in addiction recovery, told The Post that smokers tend to have the vape “live in their pocket” and use it as a stress relief after an email, in the car, while scrolling and before bed:
“It becomes an unconscious decision, while going outside and lighting a cigarette forces a beginning and end,” she explained.
Still, Boone warned against mistaking this for being less addicted or making a healthier decision.
“If stress happens, nicotine follows, relief happens, and the brain learns that sequence again,” she told The Post. “The packaging has changed but the lesson hasn’t.”
And of course, medical professionals are quick to slam the “benefits” of cigarette smoking over vaping, saying the claims are even foggier than a room full of Newport News ashtrays.
Dr. Carol Eisenstat, a board-certified physician and Medical Director of Line Eraser M.D. in New Jersey, told The Post that the idea that cigarettes are a healthier alternative to vaping is “concerning.”
“In my opinion, the most troubling aspect of this trend is the potential confusion between nicotine exposure and overall health risk,” Einsenstat shared. “A vape may deliver more nicotine than a cigarette in certain circumstances, but that does not make the cigarette healthier.”
Einsenstat said that nicotine drives addiction, but the combustion of tobacco has a substantial “burden of disease” that vapes don’t.
“Although vaping is not harmless, cigarette smoking generally exposes the body to a substantially greater burden of toxic chemicals,” Einsenstat explained to The Post. “You’re essentially replacing one nicotine delivery system with another, while introducing the well-established dangers of combustible tobacco.”
Dr. Sylvie Stacy, MD, MPH, an addiction medicine specialist, also weighed in, saying that cigarettes are in no way a healthier alternative because they are combustible.
“The vast majority of disease and death from smoking comes from combustion,” Stacy shared with The Post. “It’s not the nicotine component itself. When you light dried plant matter on fire and inhale the smoke, you draw in a lot of harmful chemicals, tar, and carbon monoxide into your lungs.”
Stacy did agree that the nicotine vapes on the market today have significantly higher amounts of nicotine than cigarettes. Still, she said, it doesn’t make either option safe.
“Vaping does have risks – particularly nicotine dependence and lung irritation,” Stacy said. “But it certainly doesn’t make sense to switch to cigarettes to lessen those risks.”
