I began smoking socially around age 16 and was a habitual tobacco user by age 18. At the time I was able to successfully quit (age 30, about two months ago) I was smoking between 10 and 25 cigarettes per day, about 12-15 on average. Around 2010, my wife and I attempted to quit smoking using the e-cigarette technology available at the time, but found its use cumbersome and product failure rate too high to be effective. After several days without cigarettes, we began to use tobacco products again and abandoned vaporizing within a month. Mid-2013, we decided to try again. I purchased eGo type equipment and liquid nicotine with approximately 10 mg/ml concentration, and we found that we were able to reduce our cigarette consumption by about 50 percent within a few days (her habit was comparable to mine). After some research and the discovery of several alternate nicotine vaporization methods (all based on the eGo platform), we decided to obtain some 18 mg/ml concentration nicotine solution (e-juice or juice)and attempt to abandon cigarettes completely. This occurred in the latter half of June 2013. Since quitting, I have noticed a considerable energy boost, as well as an enhanced sense of smell and taste. I am able to breathe much more deeply without experiencing coughing fits, and have ceased to cough up yellowish phlegm in the morning before brushing my teeth. These are the physical benefits, but the emotional/familial benefits of not smoking have been a much greater motivator to continue using my personal vaporizer. I have a nine-year-old daughter, and have always gone to great lengths not to expose her to my second-hand smoke. Since converting from smoking to vaporizing, I no longer have to ask her to stay away from me and to avoid our apartment’s back patio in general when her mother and I are smoking, nor do I have to tell her to wait until Daddy is done smoking before responding to a request like getting a game out of a high cabinet. Although she never criticized her parents for smoking, my little girl has been very supportive of our transition to vaporizing, and fully understands that while any use of nicotine can be harmful and that our vaporizers (always stored in a secured area when not in use) can be harmful to her, the potential harm to both her and her parents is significantly reduced as compared to our former tobacco use. In the ensuing weeks, I’ve reduced my nicotine intake, first dropping to 12 mg/ml strength juice at nights and then using that level as a standard while further reducing my nicotine intake to 6 mg/ml in the evening. Although it is my intention to eventually cease using nicotine, at present I am nothing short of ecstatic about the transformation in my life to date after several past failed attempts at tobacco cessation via other methods. I’ve been so inspired by my success in using my vaporizer to quit smoking that I’ve become a bit of an evangelist among family and friends. A good friend who has a two-year-old daughter and a wife pregnant with a second child has begun vaporizing. Another friend’s father, who’s smoked for over 40 years, has adopted vaping and cut his cigarette intake from over a pack a day to less than ten. Most importantly, my mother-in-law, who watches my daughter during the summer and has been an indoor smoker, cut her cigarette intake from over 30 a day to less than 10 after she was introduced to vaping. Even better, she intends to quit completely within the next few weeks. There’s already a marked change in the smell of her home – even as a fellow smoker I was unable to stomach being in her living room for long stretches, but in just the last few weeks since I’ve loaned her vaporizing equipment the stench (and, I’m inclined to believe, the toxins) have evaporated. Over the last few months, my sister-in-law, her boyfriend, and two other couples in my circle of friends have all, to one extent or another, adopted vaping as a smoking reduction or cessation method. It is my sincere hope that regulatory action will not impede the unprecedented rate at which our access to tobacco alternatives has enabled myself, as well as so many of my beloved family and friends, to forge a new path no longer dependent on cigarette smoking. – Dave Rice, Ocean Beach, San Diego, California / @DaveRiceSD / OBDave