Two Months

Mischief Is Important 37 Comments

Last week I celebrated two months cigarette free. It’s good thing. I’ve previously used drugs, patches, gum, and cold-turkey. Two months ago I ordered my e-Stick from Juicy (an E-Go style).
There isn’t anyone, anywhere that is going to tell me that e-cigs don’t help quit smoking or that it’s as bad for you as smoking.
There are four ingredients in e-cig juice. Propylene glycol (think asthma inhaler), and/or vegetable glycerine, artificial/natural colour and flavourings, and optionally nicotine.
The PG gives you the ‘throat hit’. The irritation on the back of your throat that you get from smoking is replicated with it. The VG adds a sweetness, a mild throat irritation and vapour. Flavour and nicotine is self-explanatory.
All of the above and hundreds more chemicals are in cigarettes or are a by-product of combustion. Vaping is a magnitude safer, by virtue of not inhaling the balance.
Honestly, I love it. I haven’t needed or wanted a cigarette since I started. At all. I’m on my second juice buy and dropped the nicotine level from 18mg to 12mg. I’ve bought from the aforementioned Juicy as well as Flavour Crafters and the local store, Vapor Jedi. Some flavours I like, some are too much. The next buy will go down one more level of nicotine.
I would be very angry at any level of gov’t that takes this quit tool away from me.

37 Replies to “Two Months”

  1. “Danger, Dr. Smith, Danger!”
    Bad enough it’s harmless and enjoyable, and that it helps you quit a dangerous habit.
    Worse though, if you’re buying that you’re not buying the usuriously-taxed other product…
    Prediction – either a completely trumped-up health restriction (how many gallons of this stuff do we need to pump into a cancer-prone mouse to give one in a thousand a tumor?) OR a “save the children” style government regulation/taxation scheme.
    Too bad – sounds like an awesome solution to smoking…

  2. Let us know how it goes, Lance. I need to quit, badly. And the patch just doesn’t cut it any more.

  3. Anyone benefiting from these devices had better enjoy it while they can. The anti-smoking lobby will only intensify its efforts to implement an outright ban or, at the very least, have draconian restrictions put on the use of these e-cigs. In addition to the cigarette police who make a fine living developing rules and regulations governing smoking, there is the ever-present herd of anti-smoking zealots who derive some demented pleasure from harassing and bullying smokers. Whether or not the e-cigs are harmless will not enter into the equation.
    Don’t forget …. even though the unspeakable horrors of second-hand and third-hand smoke will have been eliminated, there still exist the dreaded fourth-hand smoke (trauma induced by observing someone smoking) and the less common though equally harmful fifth-hand smoke (anxiety resulting from the thought that somewhere someone is smoking).
    Remember, it is not about health and never was.

  4. As a many-times-quit smoker,(now for good, except for the occasional stogie), a curiosity, and something that’s not much mentioned: how long do these things last, and what is the cost…say weekly?

  5. I smoked for 40 years , could never manage to quit for more than 4 days . I pretty much had given up on ever quitting . My son showed me these e-cig and vaper gizmos and I started to use them fully 3 weeks ago. Amazingly easy to quit for me with these things. I too fear that the government is going to create a multi billion dollar tax and spend spree (just to keep us all safe in case something bad might happen to the peon taxpayers). I would truly be pissed if they started messing with these things. I don’t want to smoke cigs anymore and give the taxman more money. I feel fantastic since I switched to these things.

  6. Snaggle, 10ml of juice at $8 +/- is about 5 ‘tanks’. I go through about 3 tanks per day, I vape a lot. Others more, others less, a lot depends on what you smoked and how much nicotine your body feels you need and the level of nicotine in the juice.
    The starter kits go for around $70 or so and that will usually include a selection of juice.

  7. The cost of using these things is less than one third the cost of smoking for me.

  8. I was an occassional smoker. Then switched to nicorettes – for about 6 years. Guess i substituted one habit with another. Better to chew than smoke i fig.
    Havn’t done either since surviving a major bout of colorectal cancer.

  10. These vaporizers are turning the tobacco and health and insurance sectors upside down.
    As safe cigarette displacers they are perfect. – no second hand issues they can be used indoors legally.
    As nicotine is a stimulant that reduces appetite and thus weight gain – it is very arguable that a Vapour user may have a better long term health outcome than someone who quits and then lives the rest of their lives carrying around 15 or more pounds of extra weight.
    And what about teenage girls who currently turn to tobacco to keep down weight/be fashionable? Vaporizers would seem to be the perfect solution.
    Insurance companies that have long rated those found to have nicotine in their blood may have to change their approach. Healthcare people are going to have to explain why someone trying to quit or lose weight why they shouldn’t use one.
    And these vaporizers don’t have to stop at nicotine – how about medicinal or recreational marijuana? Or even stronger stuff?
    As for banning them – I highly doubt it would stick long term. Court cases likely will happen and without a shred of negative health evidence it’s hard to see how any ban would not eventually be struck down.

  11. Governments demand their tobacco tax revenues and will let nothing get in their way. The winner of Ontario’s June 12th election will immediately start attacking e-cigs, so better stock up a whole lot of them NOW while you can … because between e-cigs and contraband cheap Indian smokes from the reserve, government coffers ARE feeling the pinch. STOCK UP, FOLKS!!!

  12. I should also add that the vaporizer will need to be replaced every now and then too at about $25 for a five pack. Each vaporizer lasts about two to three weeks in my limited experience. Depends on the type and quality.

  13. Lance….congrats…I am going through a recovery program…I quit,however my better half did not. I was given a drug test after she came to visit me.Funny.There is NO second hand shit.I was neg for everything,but was around a smoker,sooooooo….where was the second hand smoke? Grab it now and quit. The gubermint would have made smoking illegal loooonnng ago,except we forget the TAXES they get. Follow the money folks,follow the money.

  15. The best way to ultimately kick the habit is to set out a plan to only light up on certain occasions, like when you’re doing a particular activity for example. For me, I’ve found what works (not has “worked” because I still smoke but less so now than I have) is to smoke only when I drink, and to have 1 cig per bottle of beer, which is my drink of choice. I’m proud to say that having smoked 2 packs a day for 15 years, I am down to 1 pack a day and have been for 6 months now. And in addition to saving a bundle on cigs, I save money by now only having to buy a single 24-case of beer per day.

  16. “As safe cigarette displacers they are perfect. – no second hand issues they can be used indoors legally.”
    What you say makes perfect sense. However, with all due respect, good luck with that one.

  17. Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it thousands of times. > Mark Twain

  19. I smoked cigs for about 10 years.
    One night, while watching a Habs hockey game, it dawned on me that I didn’t have enough cigs to last the night, and well enough into the next day without making the trip to the 7-11 three blocks from my house that night. Start my Toyota, warm it up as it was january 1986 drive three blocks for this…? it just seemed too much to continue with it. I was real tired of this, yet hadn’t considered nor tried to quit before.
    So I finished those remaining 6 cigs, washed the ashtrays, and put them away.
    The next day, and continuing for about 6 months, the feeling of being relieved that I didn’t have to do this anymore never left me. I haven’t touched them since, nor been tempted to. The only “program” or thought process that I could compare it to was this short video I saw a couple of years past of a guy selling his stop smoking program, of how we’re constantly trying to get back to how non-smokers feel all the time.
    Once you get by those first few days, it’s just the “Werther’s Originals” that’s the difference? subbing another, less harmful addiction.
    http://www.wimp.com/quitadvice/
    If anyone else thinks substituting lower nicotine e-cigs is the means to stepping down, then quitting, do it.
    Do anything that’ll work. Be free. Keep trying until it sticks with you.
    cheers.

  20. I heard in Calgary that the city counsel wants to ban them there. They are to be treated as cigarettes and not permitted where smoking is banned.
    They are doing their own research. Therefore … good by e-stick.

  21. Congrats Lance! This smoking thing is a tough nut to crack.
    The doctor sat me down and showed my me stats and stuff on a chart….and the resultant 25% chance of a major coronary event in the next five years. I quit that day and am well into my fourth smoke free year and an additional 15 thousand bucks back in my pocket!!!!

  22. “…….fourth-hand smoke (trauma induced by observing someone smoking) and the less common though equally harmful fifth-hand smoke (anxiety resulting from the thought that somewhere someone is smoking)……”
    Naw yer 5th hand is the MOST common…..s’all about control…
    This reminds me of the basic problem with trying to quit smoking….. psychology….thinking about it…..yer thinkin’ about smoking…..
    Like….Don’t think of the colour blue! You did! Don’t lie!
    Captcha is a vexation unto the soul!

  23. Well, that is indeed a noble plan. Can`t wean the Feds too abruptly! :-D)

  24. I decided to do a little research on E-smokes to see if there is much controversy,and found dozens of articles.
    http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1192783-health-canada-tracks-e-cigarettes
    This one mentions a federal government study to determine how widespread the use is,so as several folks above have said, Stock Up!
    I quit cold turkey in a rage against Big Tobacco in 1975,started smoking in 1962,was up to a pack a day, and have never backslid.
    Still like the smell of tobacco smoke,and when a friend lights up after a meal,I do too,in my mind.Still enjoy a pack of Colts during my annual hunting trip up north.
    Good luck Lance,and all here who are trying to kick the habit,it’s a bi*ch, there are no easy solutions.

  25. I picked up an E-Cig kit and have never looked back. Smoke free since July 28, 2013. Mango is my favorite flavor. Lance- start mixing your own immediately. Go to any drug store and order the USP propylene glycol- they will already have vegetable glycerine on hand (I get my stuff from Walmart). Check out websites that sell USP flavoring (essence/concentrate) and stock up on pure 99.9% nicotine (just in case). I’m using a 35VG/65PG mix that works well with coils, but not too thin to leak. Smoked cigarettes for 35 years and regret every minute.

  27. these damn E-cigs will kill my old age pension funding, keep smoking folks!!!!

  29. Am I the only guy here who found craig’s post hilarious?
    However, much like the ‘instant sobriety pill’ that was invented a few years back, and immediately banned, or the morning after pill that’s still difficult to get, the Grandma Nazis will do everything they can to ban the e-cig, because, as someone pointed out above, there’s a huge class of people who can’t stand to see anyone enjoy anything, and anything that enables that is bad.
    Had a few too many, and don’t want to drive impaired? There’s a pill that would neutralize the booze in your body in ten minutes? Can’t have that – people might actually drink!
    Slept with a boy without using birth control, and you’re worried you might be pregnant? There’s a pill that would prevent the egg from implanting? Can’t have that – people might actually have sex!
    You like the mild stimulant effect of nicotine, but don’t want all the tar and other stuff that comes from smoking? There’s an e-cig that delivers exactly that? Can’t have that – people might be happy!
    I’ve been beating this dead horse for a few years now – it’s the neo-fascists we have to fight on every level. They won’t be happy until we are all taking their orders. Or, as Rand put in The Fountainhead (Toohey to Keating, re: Roark):
    “I don’t want to kill him. I want him in jail. You understand? In jail. In a cell. Behind bars. Locked, stopped, strapped — and alive. He’ll get up when they tell him to. He’ll eat what they give him. He’ll move when he’s told to move, and stop when he’s told. He’ll walk to the jute mill, when he’s told, and he’ll work as he’s told. They’ll push him, if he doesn’t move fast enough, and they’ll slap his face when they feel like it, and they’ll beat him with rubber hose if he doesn’t obey. And he’ll obey. He’ll take orders. He’ll take orders!”

  30. Non-smokers don’t understand how you can miss the “throat hit” but I did, very much. I took up drinking way too much Coke to try to replicate it.
    That was about 15 years ago. The worst thing about quitting smoking was that I got writer’s block, which is not great if writing is your actual job. The same thing happened to Timothy Findley. Obviously, that didn’t last forever but it was scary when it was happening.
    Of course, shortly after I quit smoking, I met (and married) a smoker.
    I’ve promised myself that if I ever get cancer, I get to start smoking again. I never miss drinking but I miss smoking all the time.

  31. “And the patch just doesn’t cut it any more.”
    cgh, I am curious to know why not? Doesn’t it give you what you crave, that is the nicotine? I am not a smoker, and therefore have no knowledge of these things.

  32. I’m not going to speak for cgh, but for me the physical habit is an important aspect to smoking.
    I think better when I’m doing something with my hands, like tapping a foot (which used to drive my co-workers crazy).
    None of the other NRT’s satisfied that habit.

  33. You can’t quit smoking unless you quit drinking beer, for at least six months.

  34. Sounds like the train I’m on …. and I love my beer. I’ve never looked into the E-cigs and think after reading other thoughts here will.
    bverwey

  35. Lance, I stopped in at the Vapor Jedi place this afternoon and it was closed. The hours open sign indicated it should be open.

  37. Quit, just quit. Put it down and walk away. It will suck for 3 months and eventually level off. I quit 10 years ago and have never looked back. You don’t need a patch, a kit, or gum. Anger helps, embrace the suck, deal with it, and JUST QUIT
    You can do it

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