I was a heavy smoker for 25+ years, averaging 2-3 packs of cigarettes per day. Eventually the long-term effects of heavy smoking started taking a noticeable toll on my health, and I knew I had to do something. However, I truly enjoyed smoking…so rather than quitting cold turkey and eliminating it completely, at 44 years old I decided to explore electronics cigarettes as a potentially viable alternative. On a friend’s recommendation, I picked up a Joyetech Ego-C Twist starter kit with a couple bottles of 18mg nicotine e-liquid. I made a deal with myself that I would smoke the e-cig throughout the day (to satisfy the oral fixation portion of my addiction), but allowing that I would continue to smoke tobacco cigarettes whenever I truly wanted one, to satisfy the nicotine craving. But a funny thing happened on the way to moderation: from the very first time I used the electronic cigarette, it satisfied both the oral fixation AND the nicotine craving almost entirely. After using it for a couple hours, I realized that I had only a very slight desire for a tobacco cigarette….so slight that I was able to easily ignore it by using the e-cig. If I can make it a couple hours this easily….I wonder if I can make it all the way to this evening without a cigarette? And later that evening, my desire for tobacco was no stronger than it had been earlier in the day….so I simply ignored it. I was also able to ignore it the next day…and the next….and so on, until I had gone almost an entire week without a single tobacco cigarette. I was utterly amazed. After smoking 2-3 packs of cigarettes every day for 25+ years, I had stopped smoking tobacco entirely, literally overnight, without any significant effort or even planning to do it. I had hoped that perhaps the e-cigs might help me curtail my tobacco intake a bit. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would help me quit tobacco entirely…..and certainly not in less than 24 hours. This was two months ago. In two months, I haven’t bought a single pack of cigarettes. There have been three occasions where I was out with friends and the battery in my e-cig went dead….and with no spare batteries available, I ended up smoking a tobacco cigarette to alleviate my craving. (After the third time this happened, I started carrying spare batteries in my car; problem solved.) I still consider myself to be a nicotine addict, and even a smoker in a certain sense. I’m well aware that I’ve simply traded one addiction for another very similar addiction. But in my mind, the first addiction (tobacco cigarettes) is among the dirtiest, most harmful, and most offensive addictions one can practice. Electronic cigarettes/vaporizers are also an addiction…but in comparison to tobacco smoking, the e-cigs are a very mild and far less invasive addiction, and far less offensive to non-smokers. (In fact, I’ve actually had a number of non-smokers approach me to offer compliments on the pleasant-smelling aroma of the vapor coming from my e-cig. I don’t know what that is, but it smells absolutely wonderful…..like a blueberry-scented air freshener said one woman.) I won’t pretend that the electronic cigarettes are entirely healthy….and I’ll be the first to admit that we have very little information about the long-term effects of inhaling vaporized vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol. But even in the absence of long-term studies and hard scientific proof…..having had considerable personal experience with both electronic and tobacco cigarettes, I firmly believe that the light vapors generated by electronic cigarettes and personal vaporizers are exponentially less detrimental to human health than the thick, acrid smoke of tobacco cigarettes. Would I bet my life on it? I already am. Jeff Williams Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA)