Opinion: Vaping and prescription opioids: limbic capitalism in action

Have you ever written something and sent it off, only to encounter a perfect example of what you wanted to say? That happened to me.

I had just finished a new book on addiction when the vaping crisis erupted. The gist of the book is that that globalization, industrialization, mass marketing, digitization, and social media have turned the ancient human preoccupation with disreputable, potentially addictive pleasures into lucrative, commercially normal enterprises. Bad habits have been McDonaldized.

Vaping couldn’t have been a more perfect example of this.

I call those who help make bad habits routine “limbic capitalists,” a reference to their products’ neural common denominator. Whether they sell junk food, porn, slots, computer games, alcohol, or drugs,