So, I smoked my first cigarette working at a summer camp when I was 15. I immediately fell in love with it and for nearly 25 years since have struggled with a powerful love hate relationship. I told myself many times over the years that I would eventually give it up. It was just something I wanted to experience for a while. But the truth is, I definitely loved smoking. It didn’t matter that it was impacting my Physical Training performance during my Army years. It didn’t matter that it turned off many potential dates over the years. It didn’t matter that it was bankrupting me and relegating me to the social fringes and destroying my health, I just loved it. I was painfully aware of it all the whole time. Be that as it may, I knew that I had to stop so, for the last 15 years or so I have tried just about every stop smoking therapy short of acupuncture and hypnosis. Patches, gums, Zyban and Chantix. None of it could keep me free of cigarettes more than a week without cheating. It wasn’t until I tried an electronic cigarette that it all changed. Within the course of a week I went from someone who obsessed all day about wanting to go smoke, who impulsively bought a very expensive pack even if I knew I needed the money for food to someone who doesn’t even think about a cigarette anymore. I don’t get an itchy trigger finger when I’m at a convenience store. I don’t feel the urge to bum one from a friend or coworker. I just don’t. And the end result? I feel better. I smell better. I sleep better. I think better. I look better. I’m happier and have a lot more money in the bank. I can’t say for sure that electronic cigarettes are completely harmless but it’s certainly less harmful that traditional cigarettes in every way that counts. If the government takes it upon themselves to take something away from me that has facilitated such an amazing improvement in my life, then I can only imagine that the results might be disastrous for me personally. We are supposed to be a nation where free thinking adults are free to make their own choices, good or bad. I can definitely say that, for me, this choice definitely leans towards the former.