I would like to share both my professional and personal stories. I am a board member and past-president of the California Association for Alcohol & Drug Educators (CAADE), which accredits addiction studies programs in over 40 colleges and universities in California, Arizona and Nevada. It also issues the highest level of addiction counselor certification in California, and currently represents more than 6000 counselors, college faculty members and students. I myself teach addiction studies at Cypress College and Loyola Marymount University. CAADE has a special concern about smokers, as 80% of our patients in treatment centers smoke. CAADE has stepped up efforts to deal with this issue by calling for the addiction treatment community to use its expertise in developing better tools to help curb smoking. One of the most promising tools we now have is the use of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation, and CAADE has officially endorsed their use. We are starting to see 50-80% reductions in tobacco cigarettes use in treatment centers that encourage use of ??ecigs? to quit smoking. This compares to the 1.2% success rates that come from nicotine patches and gums. While much more research need to be done, the science so far clearly indicates that ecigs are 99 times safer than smoking, and virtually the entire use of ecigs comes from smokers trying to quit. Such a promising tool would indicate that we should do everything we can to get these into the hands of smokers, and do everything possible to further research and reasonable regulations to ensure product safety. As a professor of pharmacology of substance abuse I have studied every bit of research available, and the preponderance of evidence supports the relative safety and efficacy of ecigs. There is no evidence of significant risk to the user or bystanders. I recommend ecigs to all my smoking clients, except for those who need to stay away from mild stimulants like caffeine, .e.g. pregnant women and people with heart conditions. Although vendors may not legally do so, I as a professional counselor happily identify ecigs as a tool for smoking cessation. I am baffled by the opposition to ecigs. Since they have no real science to back their claims they resort to arguments such as wanting to ban or restrict ecigs because it ??looks like smoking.? As an alcoholism counselor I don??t try to ban lemonade because it looks like a margarita. ??Vaping? an ecig represents smoking cessation, not smoking. Those who stand to lose the most from ecigs are the tobacco companies and the pharmaceutical industry that produces other smoking cessation products. I urge you to ignore their propaganda and let science be the judge. Finally, as a pack-and-a-half a day smoker for 38 years I was desperate to quit smoking. I tried everything, including the patches, gums,slinics, self-help groups, Zyban, Chantix (twice), etc., but never lasted more than a month. I was so desperate to quit I once went to a Beverly Hills dermatologist to have my lips injected with Botox to make them unable to form a vacuum around a cigarette. Nothing worked until the magic day I tried ecigs a year and a half ago, and have not smoked a single cigarette since. I no longer cough, smell bad, spend money I don??t have, or have a constant parade of concerned people telling me I look like I am going to die. I am free. As an ethics professor I like to remind my students that they are obligated to respect the fundamental ethical principle of autonomy, i.e. the right of competent clients to make informed decisions about their own healthcare. To ban or restrict vaping would force clinicians into a dilemma of choosing to follow legal mandates or ethically doing what is best for the client. The answer should be obvious. Fr. Jack Kearney, M.Div., CATC IV, CATE