I am happy to say that I am a former smoker after breaking a 40 year, 2.5 pack a day smoking habit in less than one week’s time. That’s right and it seems hard to believe, even for me as I had tried everything to quit with no success: Patches, Gum, Lozenges, Hypnosis, Lazer Therapy, Wellbutrin and Accupuncture…a lot of money down the drain with each method with no success. I was very sad to find myself being a failure at quitting over and over again. I wanted to quit, but to be honest, I enjoyed smoking, the inhaling and exhaling the smoke, the hand to mouth. This alone was so calming during my hectic days and my cigarettes were my friend, I thought. After all, my cigarettes were with me and I relied upon them during every tradgedy in my life, every celebration, every milestone that I had accomplished were all accompanied by my favorite friend, my cigarettes. I have had a very long relationship with cigarettes and I wear the scars of my long association, COPD. Trying to walk up a flight of stairs, run after my grand children, play sports…what a mess I was. I was huffing and puffing like a steam engine and afterwards I would sit down and light up another cigarette, so my friend could join me in this moment of breathlessness. I look back now and realize just how pitiful I was to not break up that friendship earlier. I wreaked of smoke, my car, my clothes and my hair all smelled like a stale ashtray, of course I could not smell so it did not bother me. Friends would say something to me occassionally, but I had no clue just how bad it was until I switched to e-cigarettes and got my sense of smell back. I ordered my first e-cigarette online in March of 2010, I bought some apple flavored liquid at the same time. The e-cigarette came with pre-filled but refillable cartridges with 24mg tobacco flavor. The first day or two, this ws fine, but I kept comparing the flavor to that of a cigarette…face it, nothing tastes like burning tobacco but burning tobacco. I re-filled the cartridges with the Apple and Wham, my mind immediately related the e-cigarette to a good flavor, satisfies my nicotine craving and I am not offending my friends or family nor I am subjecting them to my second-hand smoke. Yippee! I was done with cigareetes by the end of the week and I have never looked back. I have reduced my nicotime from 24mg to 18mg to 12mg and now I am using 0mg. I am simply satidfying my hand to mouth habit, which I enjoy. If it had not been for the e-cigarette that mimicks my smoking action to which I was also addicted, I would most likely be a dead woman by now. I could not quit on the other methods, as they did not include the whole ritual of smoking, and the e-cigarette do and have saved my life, my entire family has made the switch and we are all healthier and happier as a result of being able to quit smoking so easily using e-cigarettes. I always tell people I meet about the benefits of using the e-cigarette and offer advise about skipping the intro versions of the started kits and go for the big gun that is going to do the job to start with. I hope that all smokers and non-smokers get the truth about e-cigarettes so we can save as many lives as possible…400,000 will die in the US this year from smoking related diseases. Thank you CASAA for all your efforts to educate the people about reduced-risk alternatives to cigarettes and fight for our rights to the truth about what should be considered on e of the biggest break-throughs in healthcare…e-digarettes Sincerely, Penny Zeilman Former Smoker Fort Lauderdale, FL