I quit smoking real cigarettes by using an electronic cigarette. In one week, I stopped a 30 year habit. For those of you unfamiliar with electronic cigarettes, they are electronic devices, shaped to look like cigarettes. The consist of three pieces, a mouthpiece that contains a flavor cartridge, an atomizer which contains a heating element that vaporizes the liquid in the flavor cartridge and a lithium ion battery that powers the atomizer. Some models combine the flavor cartridge and the atomizer.
The flavor cartridge can be refilled with e-juice, a substance, which may or may not contain nicotine. I go through about 15ml of e-juice a week. I was a two pack a day smoker. In New Jersey, cigarettes cost over $7 a pack. I’ve bought e-juice for as low as $7 for a 50ml bottle, but usually spend $8.50 for 20ml. Needless to say, I’m saving a lot of money by switching from one addiction to another.
Electronic cigarettes have a language all their own.
The action of using an electronic cigarette is called vaping.
So, you vape an e-cig.
And users are called Vaporers.
An atomizer is sometimes called an attie.
You dip atomizers that protrude from their housing into e-juice – dipping.
Whereas, you drip into atomizers that are recessed – dripping.
Cartomizers are combined flavor cartridges and atomizers.
Between the different learning the lingo and various models of electronic cigarettes, it took more than two week of research on an e-cig forum before I was ready to purchase my first e-cig kit.
A basic kit has two batteries, one atomizer, five flavor cartridges (usually regular,) a USB charger and a USB to AC converter.
Buyer beware! There are a lot of crappy electronic cigarette brands and you can avoid them all by doing a little bit of research.
The FDA and Electronic Cigarettes
Of course the week I decided to buy a kit, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came out with a study that said electronic cigarettes were dangerous.
Now I’ve always respected the FDA, but to me, their study was a little faulty. And biased. And politically motivated. This is the same agency, which approved the stop smoking drug, Chantix, which has led to many suicides. Suicide as a side effect doesn’t strike me as a particularly good thing. This is opposed to trace amounts of chemicals in e-cigs that I would have to smoke an impossible amount of e-juice daily for it to have a harmful effect on me.
At this point, I had to ask of the FDA, do you want me to stop smoking or not?
It's About the Money
The taxes collected on cigarette sales is staggering. I’ve heard people say that smokers cost the Federal government and the health care system a bundle in health related issues. In other words, they get sick more often and we, as a society have to pay more money in taxes to cover their health complaints.
In reality, smokers pay their health costs up front in the form of cigarette taxes. Smokers already pay the costs of cigarette related diseases in taxes to the federal government and they pay additional taxes to state and local taxes, which are almost pure revenue to our local governments. The first two dollars you pay for a pack of cigarettes go to tobacco companies, everything past that is taxes.
If all smokers in the United States quit smoking tomorrow, the effects on the economy would be devastating.
In the past six months laws have been passed to prohibit sending cigarettes through the United States Postal system. So you can’t buy cheap cigarettes online or in another state. States are going after smokers for back taxes on prior purchases made online.
Electronic cigarette sales have doubled in the past year. Most e-cig sales are done online and are tax free. So, the Federal government went after importers of electronic cigarettes and seized their shipments.
Electronic Cigarettes and the Law
And of course, the two biggest companies sued the FDA to have their shipments released.
It was strange watching this case unfold. On one hand, I have no respect for the companies that were in the position to fight back. In my opinion, and only in my opinion, they overcharge the consumer and have a no refund policy for their kits, which are usually sold in malls.
On the other hand, I had stopped smoking for a couple of months and had the chance to experience the benefits of the e-cig, so I had a vested interest in them winning the court case. The case seemed to drag on forever. And the preliminary ruling favored the electronic cigarette firms.
In a nutshell, the FDA was seeking to ban e-cigs as “medical delivery devices” used to quit smoking. The position of the e-cig industry was that these were an alternative to smoking, used for recreational purposes and thus under current law could not be banned.
Of course the case is being appealed. And who is suffering? The Mom and Pop retailers, who had their shipments seized and not necessarily returned to their vendors, so they could get a refund on their purchases.
You cannot sue the FDA for monetary damages, so there is no relief for the people and small businesses that had their merchandise seized.
American Ingenuity Wins Big – Kinda, Sorta
While this court case was dragging on, it managed to create another industry for people who use e-cigs. Known generically a box mod, people here were manufacturing battery packs that you could screw an atomizer into. It could use generally available lithium ion batteries and took one piece of imported equipment out of the loop.
While “modders” had already existed, they really came into their own during this time. The holy grail of modding is building a better atomizer, which can be the least resilient part of an e-cig. The box mod getting the most amount of attention right now is the “juice box,” which contains a small bottle of liquid, an American made atomizer and a battery. Unfortunately production has not been reliable, and its reputation is sinking fast.
And since the initial result of the lawsuit was positive, vaporers, as a whole, are just a little less concerned with stockpiling equipment, and more concerned with quality and reasonable turnaround time on their orders.
Why Do I Love Electronic Cigarettes?
I stopped smoking for the first time in 30 years. The e-cig has a very high success rate over a long period of time, as opposed to nicotine gum, patches and Chantix.
I can smell and taste things again. I can breathe again, without difficulty when I walk fast or for long distances. I don’t snore anymore. I’m not killing myself on the lethal cocktail of chemicals produced from whatever was being burned when I used to smoke cigarettes.
The only side effect of using an electronic cigarette was constipation, and truly noxious gas for the first couple of months. I’m told that this is common. I can tell you that it does go away.
Right now, I’m working on reducing the level of nicotine in the e-juice. Eventually, I’ll be on Zero nicotine juice, which I can mix up myself. It will be USP grade Vegetable glycerin, which is used for baking cakes and pies, pure grain alcohol (PGA) and menthol crystals or one of the safe flavorings that can be used in an e-cig which come in flavors like apple pie, chocolate, vanilla or peppermint,to name a few.
Did I forget to mention that e-juice comes in different flavors? My favorite is double mint. Which leads me to my final point – well, the article had to end somewhere.
We're Banning Them for the Children!
One of the things the FDA said when they tried to ban electronic cigarettes is that children would use them because they come in a variety of flavors. It was the same reasoning they used for banning flavors in cigarette products.
Children who start smoking buy Marlboro Reds. Regular cigarettes and menthol are the bread and butter of the Tobacco Industry. There is no cool factor in using an electronic cigarette. An initial kit is over $40. The batteries have to be recharged. You can’t hide e-cig use from the parents while your batteries are recharging for 4 hours.
And I was unaware that my taste buds died when I turned 21.
Needless to say, I’m not happy with big pharmaceutical and tobacco companies right now. They could have come out with this technology years ago, instead of producing addicting products or products that don’t work. I’m not really happy with the FDA right now either.
Marsha Gellerman has been building niche web sites for JH Gellerman.com for over 7 years. JH Gellerman specializes in keyword research and promotion for unglamorous but profitable keywords and niches.
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Contributor's Note
I do not sell electronic cigarettes. Presently, I am not an e-cig affiliate. I found electronic cigarettes when I was looking for a coupon for regular cigarettes. I applied on the manufacturer’s site and received my coupon Monday, April 10, 2010. At which point, I’d been cigarette free for 241 days and 4 hours. Sorry guys, you’re about 8 months too late! If you decide to try e-cigs, do your research.
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