Well, I knew what I posted was going to have mixed responses, and I knew someone was going to accuse me of fearmongering. I most certainly do feel the effect of 10% alcohol. I have done the experiment now a few times and there is, at least with me, a strong enough effect to want to avoid it.
I have also worked with ethanol as a solvent in reactions, where the air is filled with ethanol vapor, and every chemist knows how that affects you, just like any volatile solvent vapor.
I have also owned and used a brandy pipe, mostly with Gran Marnier and stronger flavored liquors, and the effect is very strong for very little liquid. And this is exactly the purpose of a brandy snifter. You do not even need to drink it.
Inhaled alcohol is not the same as alcohol that is ingested as a drink. It goes right to the brain, and it takes very little to affect you. Perhaps stupor is too strong a word, but buzzed? Yes, definitely.
Everyone is different. I know people that can throw back enough ethanol to put me in a coma. This is a function of differences in liver alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes. Mine are somewhat sluggish, it seems. I feel the effects of one beer. Many alcoholics have overactive liver enzymes, which is why many dont feel or act drunk after having consumed a lot. And some have zero tolerance from damaged livers.
The effect was not enough to noticeably affect my driving, that I could tell, but it was enough that normal tasks I need to do, like high-level math, programming, and martial arts, were strongly affected. Spread out over a day, before I realized what was happening, had me thinking something is terribly wrong. And now that I am paying attention, I can certainly taste alcohol in the vapor.
Try this: put a couple mL of PGA into a vessel that allows you to only breath the vapor evaporating off of it, such as a snifter. Warm it a little to help. Sit there and inhale and see what happens while you attempt to inhale it all. If nothing happens at all, then I would say using alcohol to thin your juices should have no effect. I personally would be pretty strongly buzzed, and not a fun buzz, more like a general anesthetic, and I would not want to finish it. You are correct, my blood alcohol level would be WAY under illegal. And I would be strongly buzzed...my guess is anyone would be.
And for a recovering alcoholic, I would say even a hint of that buzz would be something you would want to avoid. Mind you, my juice was 10%. Most commercial juices with alcohol have maybe 2% since they use PG and are thin enough as it is. It certainly does make for a better quality vape, especially in terms of flavor, but water works almost equally well.
But showing a recovering alcoholic the numbers of how they should be able to vape alcohol, when distilled water, which many vendors use instead of alcohol, works about as well, is to me rather misguided. People can do what they want. I am just saying that, yes, the alcohol has the potential to affect you, and there is an alternative, so whats the big deal?
