Your teenager may be addicted to nicotine. If you take a draconian stance, you are essentially threatening to put an addicted person into abrupt withdrawal.

You need another approach.

How do I reason with a teenage vaper?

“The trick is not to try to scare them, because scare tactics don’t work at this point,” said Dr. Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, a Yale professor of psychiatry who focuses on adolescent behaviors and tobacco products. “But explaining how these products are making them addicted is the way to go.”

Involve them in a conversation. Try to get them to recognize the compulsive quality of their behavior. Show them what researchers know about nicotine addiction and the questions they are raising about the possible long-term harms of vaping.

The goal is to encourage them to want to quit for their own good, not just to give you lip service and continue behind your back.

Are all teenagers who try vaping likely to become addicted?

Not necessarily. Some people can smoke one cigarette and have a glass of wine at a party — and that’s it.

But nicotine addiction can happen swiftly and is extremely hard to extinguish. One factor is the amount of nicotine the user is exposed to. Some vaping devices, like Juul, provide high levels.

If there is a family history of addiction, or if other family members are using addictive substances like alcohol, tobacco or drugs at home, a teenager’s vulnerability ratchets up.