For those who smoke, and for those who want to quit but can't.

[Froste]

Hi, my name is Froste, I've smoked for 14.5 years.

In mid-december I was watching a crap documentary on the net, it wasn't good at all, but for a few brief seconds there was mention of a product called cigotine, which was supposed to be an electronic cigarette. I got curious and googled it, arrived at their website and watched the video of what it was, and how it worked. [BTW - for those who can't bother to read the entire text, but are immediately interested, do NOT purchase a cigotine, they're expensive and utter garbage]

I love smoking, and I love scifi, and this was something that combined both of them, without the harmful effects of tobacco. The video for cigotine got me extremely excited, but their product was expensive, a hundred dollars for the starter kit, and then 15 dollars for carts. But this was such an awesome concept that I figured there had to be something better... And there is!

There is a whole subculture around this, unlike the tobacco industry or the big pharmaceutical cartels, this isn't dominated by huge corporations, it's small vendors and private citizens who modify their own hardware, this is more like a grassroots movement than anything else. There is a huge modding community for those who are interested in electronics and/or cnc machining. It's been around for about 8 years, and gotten semi-popular in the last 3. And yet most people have never heard of them.

I kept googling and stumbled on videos and reviews and explanations and medical reports, and all sorts. The biggest forum is http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com -- it is gigantic. There are plenty of other forums too, www.vapersforum.com - www.internationalvapersclub.com and many others.

I read everything I could and researched heavily for a week, and then I placed an order with one of the vendors. They had heavy xmas discounts and I came away with a huge stash for a hundred bucks. I got my kit on December 29, and on December 29 I quit smoking. I switched over to vaping immediately, it was good enough to curb my cravings for an analog cigarette, and a week later when I got a batch of juice from another vendor, it became even more enjoyable. I much prefer vaping now, it was everything that I ever wanted from smoking, with none (or very very few) of the downsides.

For most people, they think a cigarette contains only nicotine, and that nicotine is the bad thing about them, what gives people cancer and shit. This is wrong. We don't know the exact amount of chemicals that a cigarette contains, but it is estimated that it's between 10 000, to 100 000, and the number of them that have been identified is ~5300.¹ Several of which are carcinogenic, like cadmium, benzene (the main component of gasoline that you fuel your car with), formaldehyde and other shit. There are over 50 carcinogenic chemicals in a cigarette, not to mention all that fucking tar which discolours everything around you. Most smokers already know all this, but it is something we accept because we have no alternative. Until now anyway.

It is not the nicotine in cigarettes that kills you, it's all these other substances. Nicotine itself is not much different from caffeine, in concentrated doses both are a poison, in small diluted doses they're stimulants and safe. That's it. Nicotine isn't the scary part, be scared of all the other things you get from burning tobacco. ²

An e-cig (or better called a PV -- personal vapourizer) has 3 parts, a rechargable battery, an atomizer that has a heating coil inside, and a mouthpiece that acts as a cartridge, a container for the liquid.

The liquid is made from a base of either propylene-glycol or vegetable glycerin (also called glycerol) or a mix of these two. Both of these have been classified as safe for decades and have been used for a very long time in various areas, for example in asthma inhalers, in hospital ventilation systems because they kill off viruses, in soap, in toothpaste, in practically every food item you consume. Both of these are hygroscopic which means they draw moisture (water vapour) out of the air to create fog.

There is also some flavouring, and some nicotine (you can choose which level of nic you want). [For my own part, smoking one pack a day of pretty strong cigarettes, I actually found 6mg is fine with me, which is an extremely low dose of nicotine, go figure.] You can also choose to have no nicotine at all in it. I suspect eventually I will go down to zero-nic, as it is the act of inhaling and exhaling that I enjoy, not the nicotine so much.

It works by wicking the liquid into a ceramic container in the atomizer where the coil sits, when you take a drag the air will pass through small holes at the bottom of the atomizer where the coil sits, and the moisture gets vapourized by the heating element, this creates a thick fog which emulates the effect you feel when you take a drag from an analog (a real) cigarette. Because there is no tobacco, and because you're not burning any organic materials (because you don't burn anything), there is no smoke, only a small cloud of fog which dissipates quickly and doesn't leave any lingering smells on you or others.

The money I threw down on buying my starting gear has already broken even with the money I would have spent on buying cigarettes.

If you are a smoker, or if you have a family member who smokes, or if you know someone who smokes, do yourself and them a favour and take a little bit of time to research this, go to the forums I linked to, google for it, educate yourself a little bit, because this is for real. Switch over to vaping and let your lungs heal up, you'll get rid of all the built-up tar, and let the cilia in your lungs grow back.

I haven't mentioned any vendors (other than cigotine, which was mentioned only as part of my journey of discovery along with a big fat DO NOT BUY THIS) or specific products, because I don't want to endorse anything in particular, just the concept and the knowledge of it. I want you to do your own research on this, because this is too important.

Already there are groups across the world who are trying to ban it, because it "looks like smoking" (I shit you not, that is the reason). While these groups and organizations claim humanitarian kindness, the truth is they want to give you two options, quit or die. If you choose to keep smoking because you enjoy it or because you can't quit, they would rather see you dead because it helps them in their campaigns, harm reduction doesn't give them any money.

Vaping is the third option. Don't quit, don't die, switch to vaping. This is harm reduction in its truest and purest form, and you should question the motives of any group or organization who is against this, and see them for what they really are.

If anyone has any questions I'll answer and help with what I can, questions about specific products or brands should be done through private messages



¹ http://hsph.harvard.edu/centers-inst...ticle.jphp.pdf (A report by Dr. Michael Siegel, an anti-smoking pro-vaping health researcher -- extremely informative, must read.)

² http://www.blogtalkradio.com/vapersp...michael-siegel (VPLive podcast -- this episode is interviewing aforementioned Michael Siegel and is also extremely informative, must listen.)

[Pnarpa]

So basically, this just satisfies the nicotin need without any (or at least a lot less) of the downsides that come with smoking real cigarettes?

I don't smoke myself, but this is just awesome.

[Froste]

More than that, there are plenty of nicotine replacement products like patches, gums, pills, what have you. But those products have a very high rate of failure, and those for whom it is successful it becomes a chronic replacement (i.e. they can't stop using it).

They just don't work. Furthermore people who desperately do want to quit smoking who turn to these replacement products will become psychologically and emotionally scarred when (not if) they fail. And on top of that they cost enormous amounts of money. The pharmaceutical companies who sell these products prey on that emotional state, they do not give two shits about making you stop smoking, they just want want you to keep buying their products. They're no better than the tobacco industry.

Vaping satisfies more than the physiological addiction (of nicotine), it also satisfies the behavioural and social aspects of the addiction such as the hand-to-mouth action. What you inhale feels thicker and gives some resistance due to the higher density of water, and what you exhale looks like smoke, at least briefly before it is absorbed back into the air.

It is indeed awesome, it's brilliant, and it's made of pure win. So spread the word to any you know who smoke, there is an alternative and it actually works.

EDIT: And yes, I would say without any downsides, but there is nicotine, and while it's not dangerous as such in the doses we take, it is still an addictive poison. If you vaped with zero nicotine I'd say there wouldn't be any downsides. But let me reiterate what I said before, for me personally, I consume a lot less nicotine when vaping than I did when I was smoking, and eventually I might go zero-nic.

[WhateverUSMC]

As a regular smoker (and as someone who has failed, repeatedly, to quit), I gotta say, this is amazing, and thanks for sharing!

[Pizdzius]

I know for a fact that 2% of a cigarette is made of substance which is used to create atomic bombs. Not sure what it name was tho

My dad after 30 years of smoking non-stop, ended up with 2 packs a day. He barely was able to get up anymore, so he decided to quit, with a help of a doctor. They gave him Zyban, a strong and dangerous substance. Within a few days he was sitting in a corner of the house, swinging forth and back, babbling something and really, he was miserable.

After two weeks, he said, he can't even look at the cigarette stuff.
Now, more than 6 years passed. He never touched a cigarette, now he acts like me. It stinks for him, he kicks out smokers from his house and his body regained health and good condition. ^^


My mom, though, never tried anything like that, she smokes and will hit 30-year smoking routine soon. Sigh.
Man those cigarettes are expensive.

[KKharzov]

E-cigarettes are indeed an amazing replacement for smoking. Where I live they are well known and advertised, but I can imagine that in other parts of the world the media shuns them as just another cigarette, and cigarette companies themselves will disapprove of them because it affects their precious little customers.

In recent years, substances have been added in cigarettes to actually promote addiction. That is another topic though.

Thank you for sharing Froste.

[Miraculix]

I quit smoking about 7 months ago after smoking for 6 years. That's probably a lot less than most of you so I guess it was easier for me, but I'll share my experiences with you anyway.

I was smoking pretty heavy, I was rolling tobacco and not using filters, instead I was using roaches just to avoid getting tobacco in my teeth. I'd say I was doing about 20-25 cigarettes like that a day. I had tried to quit a few times before but I failed miserably. All my failed attempts had one thing in common: I tried to quit "gently", ie, gradually reduce the amount of cigarettes I was smoking per day. My aim was to get from 20-25/day to about 5/day for the first few days, then go even lower until it dropped to 0. This never worked out for me, and actually it also never worked out for a bunch of people I know that tried the same thing.

The second method I tried was the hard way: I said to myself that the tobacco pouch I had was going to be the last one ever. The first time I tried this I failed, because of my environment and of course lack of will (can't blame it all on others). Everyone around me smoked so it was easy to just bump a couple of cigs every now and then and end up doing about 10/day just from others.

The way I managed to quit was when I had to move to the Netherlands (land of free drugs... ironic) for studies, and none of the people I see regularly smoked. So when I did the "I won't buy another one after this" thing, I really couldn't smoke at all, unless I walked out, faced some convenience store clerk with my defeat and buy more. I don't like losing, so I persisted, and it worked.

How hard was it? Well, I can describe it in phases. The first few days were obviously the hardest. Everything felt weird, you really don't realize it but it becomes an almost obsessive compulsive habit in terms of hand movement after a while, especially for those like me who rolled their own cigarettes. It felt like something had fallen out of my hand all the time, I had the constant feeling I had forgotten something cause my left pocket was always empty, the ashtray was missing from my desk and it felt like I had lost something (I kept checking if my phone was there). You would think the nicotine withdrawal would be the hardest thing at first, but actually these little things were the worst part for me. I was chewing a lot of gum and eating lots of caramels to keep my mouth & hands occupied...

After this, the next weeks are still not easy - you start missing actually smoking and not just the movements. Especially if you had smoking as part of some of your daily routines. For me, coffee was *always* accompanied by smoking. I almost could not drink coffee at first in the mornings cause it made me crave smoking so much. Same thing with eating - a cigarette after food was almost mandatory for me. The trick for me was to substitute smoking in these routines with something else. For example, eating something with my coffee instead of smoking (yes, my breakfast used to be just coffee & cigarettes), and brushing my teeth after eating instead of smoking. This deceivingly unimportant and simple thing helped me a LOT.

And then comes the 3rd and actually easiest for me phase - Nicotine (I guess? could be others as well) withdrawal. This one lasted for a solid 2 months at least, and actually I still occasionally have some thoughts about smoking from substance withdrawal. All you have to do is just wait it out, and it's really not that bad, once you're over the previous phases. I kept chewing gum and caramels (NOT the nicotine substitutes, just regular gum & caramels - I found it kind of stupid to replace the drug I'm trying to quit with the same drug packaged differently).

End result? After about 2 months it felt like I had never smoked, saved me of course a bunch of cash, got a big part of my sense of smell back, started waking up with my throat in a reasonable condition, my breath didn't stink, etc etc etc. You all know the benefits. One drawback was that because of the substance withdrawal, your metabolism gets temporarily thrown off - I gained about 10kg in these first months of quitting. Of course the extra candy and some extra eating did not help either. But I lost this extra weight in the next 3-4 months, so it wasn't that big a deal.

I don't like the idea of e-cigs. I've seen a few people use these and they make you look kind of douchey, like those guys that walk around with the Bluetooth hands-free on their ear all day. And like I said, the point (for me) is to quit, not to pretend you're still smoking but not really. But hey, if it helps you quit and you actually do it with the intend of quitting, go ahead and try it.

I hope this wall of text is helpful to at least one person that tries to quit. Then my quitting would have helped more people than just myself, which is enough for me anyway

[Knekelvoeste]

Originally Posted by Pizdzius

I know for a fact that 2% of a cigarette is made of substance which is used to create atomic bombs. Not sure what it name was tho

Lets throw smokers on Iran!

[e30G]

I'm in the process of quitting too, and your stories are pretty encouraging. I couldn't go cold turkey but I am now at least down to 2-3 sticks a day (after meals).

I hope to eventually kick the habit. My target is that a few months before my wedding at the end of this year, I'll be completely cig-free.

[tikinho]

I quit smoking before I got born and never smoked after that.