I smoked cigarettes for 35 years and for most of that time smoked well over a pack per day(about 30 cigarettes). As time went by, I realized that I needed to stop but nicotine gum, lozenges and the patch never satisfied my urges enough for me to actually quit. They also had their own side-effects that left me questioning their benefits. I tried these NRTs over a 5-year period but always went back to smoking within weeks. On my 49th birthday after several weeks of research, I received my first electronic cigarette purchase. It was a device sold by Totally Wicked called the Screwdriver Mark II and it used .8ml cartridges that the user filled with e-liquid. It was okay but not ideal. However I wanted to quit so badly that I managed to stick with it for 3 weeks until I was ready to try my first day without a single cigarette(Nov. 29, 2009). I had been continuing to smoke about 4 cigarettes per day during this initial phase. The road was rocky and I continued to have an occasional craving for the first few days. Within 4 weeks, I had fully forgotten my 30 cigarette per day habit and in that time found a different device that was designed to make my vaping experience much easier to maintain. This new device was the REO Grand and is a bottom-fed, advanced vaporizing product that utilized the same type of atomizer I was using on my Screwdriver (510) but it did away with the fiber-filled cartridge by allowing me to simply wet the atomizer coil with a push on an e-liquid filled bottle connected to the bottom of the atomizer via a small piece of tubing. This device held what for me was a 3-4 day supply of e-liquid (6ml) and a battery that only needed to be charged or changed once every 12-16 hours. This was a huge improvement to the normal e-cigarette that required refilling every hour or less and charging every 4 hours. It also looked nothing like an analog cigarette so it kept people from giving the evil-stares that have become so socially-acceptable these days. It has now been 982 days since having my last cigarette. I still own the same REO Grand device that is responsible for making my quitting possible in the long-term. Although Iƒ??ve bought several more since then to allow me to easily switch flavors to go with my activity of the moment. I cannot stand tobacco flavored e-liquids at all!! I have one REO for vaping Caf?? Mocha or Caf?? Macchiato flavored e-liquid in the morning with my coffee. I have my tried and true REO for vaping Gummy Bears, Jolly Rancher or some other sweet, fruity, candy-flavored e-liquid through the majority of the day to early evening and in my third REO I have Blueberry or Raspberry Mojito e-liquid for the evening at home or when I go out to a bar. My taste buds have fully regenerated and I couldnƒ??t smoke or taste anything remotely resembling tobacco or menthol tobacco if you paid me $1000.00 to try. My doctor is ecstatic and told me he wishes he could afford to give every one of his cigarette-smoking patients an e-cigarette to try. My blood pressure 6 months after I quit cigarettes dropped from its previous 150/100 norm to 118/78 and my entire annual medical blood workup had come back with glowing results. To jump to 2013, Iƒ??ve dropped 37 lbs. from my high of 246 lbs. in the past 7 months via walking 4 miles per day, 5-6 days a week on the treadmill/stair climber. I used to get winded if I walked more than down my driveway. The e-cigarette has not only squelched my urge to smoke analogs but has given me the confidence to try to drop a total of 70 lbs. to put me at the top of the healthy BMI range for being 5ƒ??10ƒ? tall. I was 217 lbs. when I wed my lovely, non-smoking wife of 26 years. Iƒ??m currently at 209lbs and the scale keeps dropping about 1-2 lbs. per week. I did not gain weight for the first year of vaping but my job switched to a desk position (Hardware Engineer) and the sedentary 8-10 hours a day caught up to my love of fattening food. I am using the ƒ??My Fitness Palƒ? website and smartphone application to track my caloric/macro intake and am over halfway to my goal. This is really huge for me because the NRTs I tried oh so many years ago just made me crave food as the withdrawal from smoking never really subsided. Back in 2009, I was just certain Iƒ??d be gaining at least 20lbs when I quit the analogs but I actually dropped 5 lbs. to 220 lbs. that year. I have cut down my nicotine intake by nearly 60% in the past 2 years and 9 months from 30mg/ml down to 12mg/ml and while I expected to cut that in half again recent studies on nicotine and mental acuity, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease have me wondering if I might not be better off to continue to use it at a minimal level like 6mg/ml on going. After nearly three years off smoking, I find that I do not crave vaping like I did when I first quit. However, the ritual is still there when I have my coffee, finish a meal or go out to a bar. I can be around smokers and I do not feel the urge to smoke whatsoever given that I too have my pacifier to take its place. But and there is always a but, I am a non-smoker only given the fact that I do have a safer alternative readily available. My success is real but only if I can still get the supplies required to continue to use this wonderful technology. I do not claim to be completely over the habit as I know if it werenƒ??t for this vaporizer, I would likely go right back to smoking. I cannot be given a cigarette-shaped device with tobacco flavoring providing unreasonably low-levels of nicotine which requires constant charging, refilling or replacement and does not accurately approximate the sensation of smoking a real cigarette while being expected to stay off analogs. But what I can say is that if this technology continues to be available in nearly the same form as today then I will never smoke a real tobacco cigarette again. So I really hope that the federal government agencies do not want to be complicit in my death due to forcing me through unreasonable regulation to go back to smoking cigarettes. Even though I do not vape at similarly high nicotine levels, the ritual of smoking is still a very integrated portion of my personality. Quitting nicotine has actually been VERY easy. Quitting the act or ritual of smoking is not something I see happeningƒ?? EVER! I donƒ??t want to smoke but itƒ??s something Iƒ??ve done or simulated every day for the past 37 years since the age of 14. Please let me keep 35 years as being the number of years I smoked cigarettes versus growing that number until I die. I donƒ??t want to smoke, I donƒ??t want to die but I canƒ??t find another way to keep from smoking without using my personal vaporizer. In addition to saving myself, I have been successful at getting over 30 other friends and family smokers to switch to this product as well. Many are not interested in the hobby-aspect nor do they frequent the electronic cigarette forums on the Internet so they only know what they read in the papers or see on TV. However they do care as much as I do and they will also be following this debate. Many are much older so these online surveys will not reach them but they too have seen the same results and are planning to keep vaping for life. One of them is a 72 year-old women who has had several major joint-replacement surgeries and her doctor thanked me for getting her to switch so the nurses wouldn’t have to track her down in the parking lot, IV caddy in hand, to give her the medications she requires. They welcomed her vaping in her room as long as it wasn’t bothering her roommate or other staff. As it turned out, her roommate was also a smoker suffering while locked up in her bed without her hourly habit. So I bought her a high-end disposable e-cigarette (Powerboltƒ??s Firebrand) to join in on the benefits. This technology is going to spell the end of the Tobacco Era. Please let us keep it with minimal regulation. I want to be able to pick and choose from companies other than those who have killed so many already. Cigarette manufacturers have made enough MONEY. It’s time for the folks who sell these wonderful devices to benefit from saving our lives. Please understand that this is not a black and white issue. We will not accept a ƒ??Quit or Dieƒ? approach. This will go underground if necessary as has everything else upon which a prohibition has been applied. Letƒ??s save lives including mine. Please think with you hearts and minds and not base your actions on greed, politics or false information. Drop the overwhelming What If scenarios. This is not a war to be won by denying the obvious benefits detailed in my message and in reams of other testimonials. This should be about getting people to switch to less-harmful, tar-free, smoke-free electronic cigarettes or personal vaporizers.