My name is Richard Johnson of Oklahoma City, OK. I am a 50 year old male, married, with one son and 3 stepchildren. I was a smoker from age 14. after 34 years of smoking I have been smoke free since April 28 2013. I have tried many times to quit smoking. Cold turkey, patches, nicotine gum, nothing seemed to be a permanent solution. When I stopped using one the other replaced it. One day an associate from my job asked me to come by his tire shop he wanted to show me something. When I came into his shop he had several e-cigarette starter kits. He and his brother had tried them and were so impressed with the results that he had decided to sell them at his tire shop. We made a deal on a kit and I took one home. I started using a cigarette flavor to make it seem like a real cigarette. In the next 2 weeks I bought and smoked 1 pack of cigarettes. But, I kept on using the e-cigarettes determined that I would quit. After April 28th 2013 I haven’t smoked not 1 cigarette. Now I only vape, e-cigarettes. I have since moved up at first to a eGo c variable voltage e-cigarette, 2 weeks later I got the eGo APV VAMO V2 variable voltage – variable wattage Mod. I honestly believe these thing a my saving grace from the clutches of the tobacco industries. I have converted my stepson and his girlfriend but, sadly have failed to get my wife on board. I have progressed from the ce4 tanks that came with my starter kit to DCT and RBA’s. I use high wattage so I can get more vapor when I vape. I know longer care for the cigarette flavors and now go for more pleasing flavors like RY4, Peanut Brittle and, Butterscotch are some of my favorites but, the combinations are endless. I don’t believe anyone under 18 should vape and I also don’t think non smokers should try it. Nicotine is a poison and if you don’t put it into your body now you should start now. I have been tapering back on the amount of nicotine from 24mg when I started down to 12 mg currently. E-cigarette may not be for everyone but, neither is patches, gum. I find vaping much more enjoyable than cigarettes. In all honesty who really like the flavor of cigarettes? They were designed from the start to keep you addicted and they do their job well. Even given the knowledge that they can kill you, even seeing friends and loved one die from tobacco, we still use tobacco. I found my out!!! Please don’t outlaw them and don’t tax them as cigarettes. They’re not! They don’t contain tobacco, they don’t contain tar, they don’t produce noxious fumes that kill by second hand smoke. the only poison is nicotine in doses that the body absorbs about 1000 times less than in cigarettes. Tobacco is so poison that approx. 150 tobacco pickers die each year not from smoking but, from handling tobacco leaves. I have after 34 years found a way to quit smoking and my government has their hands so deep into big tobaccos pockets they can’t stand that I found my out. They want to regulate and outlaw e-cigarettes because people will turn away from smoking. Big T won’t be able to come across with the big paydays, then healthcare will get cheaper because millions of lives might be saved then, governments share of the Big Pharmaceuticals will go down as well, another lost payday. It isn’t about you guys in the government it’s about your countryman’s lives. Let us live our live and live your own. Your job was to serve us not regulate us because some business is giving out sanctity and absolution millions of dollars at a time. I’ll get of my soap box now but, If e-cigarettes can save 1 life don’t we owe it to that one person to have it available. Sincerely Richard Johnson Oklahoma City, OK U.S.A.