ds(17) doesn't smoke or vape and neither do any of his current friendship group. He is very logically minded and thinks it stinks, it can kill you, why on earth would anyone even try it.
He watched my dad, who stopped heavy smoking in his late 40's, but too late to stop the damage, suffer with COPD throughout his late 60's and 70's, the last couple of years were horrific, constantly attached to an oxygen machine at home. ds was there, 12 years old, when we found him dead.
He has broken off and moved friendship groups a couple of times when previous groups started smoking, or spending their time drinking and not much else. There is a minority of kids in his year who are wannabe cool kids, they hang about with other wannabes from from other schools, and more worryingly older (normally boys) that have just left school and they look up to. They all hang about in parks/outside at night and smoke, vape, drink, dabble in soft drugs and low level anti social behaviour.
General opinion from him and his friends is they are all losers and to be avoided.