My name is Ryan McLaren, a pack-a-day smoker for 15 years and confidently reporting a NON-SMOKER since June 7, 2013 and counting. I have been seriously trying to quit tobacco use since I was 25 – nearly ten years now, and I would like to start by outlining my failures: – Cold Turkey: Dozens of attempts, none successful. – Nicotine Gum: A disgusting option and one that provided such unpleasant physical effects that I went running back to tobacco cigarettes. – Zyban: Complete success for approximately one month, when severe (and to this date, PERMANENT) detrimental effects to my mental health began. – Nicotine patch: Proved reasonably successful for approximately two months, when rashes and lesions started to develop all over my body where the patches had been placed. I hope this goes some way to illustrating my commitment to eliminating tobacco use, despite my failures. Now, I need to be clear: I LOVED smoking. As much as I resented it and recognized its negative effects on my health and the inevitability of debilitating or fatal disease long-term, the comfort of smoking was so powerful I was willing to look past that. I am, for better or worse, a cynical, loosely nihilistic atheist. Loosely translated: We’re all gonna die and this is our only chance at life, so I’m going to enjoy it however I see fit. I live my life using an intensely personal, but vehemently defended moral credo based on respect, tolerance and treating people with kindness and understanding. Your choices are your own and are your RIGHT as a free person. As are mine. But of course, I have people I care about. A woman I love. A life I want to enjoy for as long as I possibly can. Smoking made me stink, raped my finances, impeded my ability to be active (compounding the health issue) and that list goes on and on. On June 7th of this year, I bought my first electronic cigarette, using 24mg nicotine juice. I HAVE NEITHER TOUCHED, NOR HAD THE URGE TO SMOKE TOBACCO SINCE. While my quitting journey has only just begun on a long road to recovery from this habit, I have – for the first time, all the confidence in the world that this is the path for me. Already I have cut my nicotine levels to a 12mg count and plan to drop to 6mg in short order. I am in no rush, I have no schedule to adhere to, this is simply what vaping has allowed for in under 8 short weeks. The difference is clear: E-cigarettes and vaping allow the pleasures and creature comforts of smoking, without the smoking. Even more than that, it has allowed me to witness the effects of not smoking almost immediately; within two weeks of using my personal vaporizer, my lungs started to clear out (gross) and allow freer breathing, my chronic stomach issues (IBS) have all but disappeared completely, and I am more present around friends, since I no longer ditch conversations and activities regularly to go have a butt. Vaping works because it is enjoyable. I have all the creature comforts of smoking cigarettes: – I get the oral and manual fixation so integral to the smoking experience and which is, in my opinion, 90% of the habit. – I get the calming benefits of a slow, deliberate draw, a deep inhale and a satisfying exhale. – It has proven an effective delivery method for nicotine – so much so, that I have drastically cut my usage (down to the rough equivalent of only 3-5 smokes per day), taken as needed. Added benefits, some unforseen: – It tastes great. The sky is the limit for flavours and aromas! – It provides a ritual (I now build my own coils, something I liken to rolling your own smokes or packing a pipe). – Being a part of a burgeoning new industry that EXCITES and INSPIRES smokers who want to quit, fostering communuity, the sharing of successes and failures, a global support group united by our passion for the one product that has allowed us to truly kick the cancer sticks. – It’s a conversation starter, especially from other smokers. Let me be clear about this: SMOKERS WANT THIS. I have converted three coworkers already whose stories are similar to mine, all of whom have been successful thus far. I think this should suffice for my personal contribution to this cause. Vaping works, period. I don’t think any rational person is against studying the short- and long-term effects of vaping as a smoking alternative, but logic permits that this is inevitably far less detrimental to my health compared to smoking cigarettes. Tobacco is not regulated as a drug, and the studies there are long and well understood. Tobacco is afflicting and ultimately killing millions of people. To regulate e-cigarettes/nicotine juice as a drug is either a thinly-veiled nod to the deep coffers of big tobacco, the result of knee-jerk reactions by hard-line abstinence zealots, or both. Let me be perfectly clear: My interests are my own. I will continue to vape, legal or no. No single person or massive corporation or so-called public health official is going to stop me from doing this, the one thing that has allowed me to eliminate tobacco from my life. The idea that our right to vape is under threat while big tobacco continues along unhindered is enough for any thinking human being to dismiss action taken by our governing bodies out of hand. This is my action, my contribution to the cause. Please, DO study this, disseminate the findings and enhance public awareness which will ultimately improve and refine this new alternative to smoking. But I am an EX-SMOKER now, a new VAPER. Proudly so, and holding strong. You WILL NOT take that away from me.