I began using tobacco products at the age of 14. My best friend’s father used to allow him and me to finish off his cigars when he was done smoking them. We figured that the best way for us to buy tobacco products at our age would be to learn everything there was to know about cigars and walk into a cigar shop acting as if we had already been smoking for years. It worked so well that we were eventually on a first name basis with the cigar store owner. By the time I was 15, almost 16, I was already smoking about half a pack per day and I used snuff (the kind you sniff) at school for a quick, undetectable nicotine fix. I also smoked cigars and pipes on a daily basis. I was forced to quit for 3 months in Marine Corps boot camp, but lit up a cigarette as soon as I possibly could after graduation. I was married (for the first time) by the age of 19, and between 19 and 21 I actually quit smoking at the bequest of my wife. When the marriage turned sour and divorce was eminent, I started up again. I started smoking Marlboro Reds and Sampeorna Clove Cigarettes. This continued until I had switched completely over to clove cigarettes at the rate of two or more packs per day. I smoked this way until about 26 or 27, when I started coughing up blood (not surprisingly) and switched to regular light cigarettes briefly, then back to Reds. My first experience with e-cigarettes took place when I was 28, attending college. I tried a few disposable varieties, which I didn’t enjoy very much, then I bought a 510-series, cigarette-sized, cartridge-based e-cigarette from Totally Wicked out of London. I used this on and off for a year or more, using it less and less, and smoking more and more, until the device broke and I didn’t purchase a replacement. I didn’t return to E-cigarettes until 2012. That was when I discovered the wonders of flavored E-liquids, and the higher quality vegetable-glycerine-heavy E-liquid mixtures. I didn’t like the cartridge (cartomizer) units anymore, and switched to the better (in my opinion) clearomizer options. Using clearomizers, high quality E-juices, and eGo-style E-cigarette batteries, I was able to cut down to less than a pack per day for about six months. Then I finally quit smoking for good, and hardly even noticed that I had quit anything at all. My smoking desires continued to be quenched by my E-cigarette (then using between 24 and 36mg nicotine strengths). Now I work in the E-cigarette industry full time. I am the head of shipping for Mr Nice Guy Vape located in Melbourne, FL. I have been with the company since it’s inception and I have watched the building of our sterile, professional laboratory. I watch the mixing of ingredients that goes into the production of our E-liquids, so I am fully aware of EXACTLY what’s in my E-juice. I have also started my own blog/website, reviewing the various manufacturers and flavored of E-juices (and I’m unbiased, I swear!). I also cover many of the political, legislative, and health topics surrounding the E-cigarette industry. This helps me to be completely knowledgeable about the E-cigarette industry and the truth about the health effects/harm reduction qualities of E-cigarettes. My blog has actually been quite successful and in the three short months I’ve been running it, I’ve already seen more than 30,000 visitors. The site is ejuiceconnoisseur.com. At the time of this writing, I have been completely cigarette free for almost 4 months, and I have no desire to return to cigarettes. I feel so much healthier now, especially since the clearing of the lungs phase is now waning down. I can breath better, I have fewer sinus/nasal issues and problems, I have fewer allergies, I can smell for the first time in well over a decade (the only part that is partially negative considering I have a diapered baby in the house… but I digress), I can move faster, and for longer periods of time without being out of breath, and I have noticed a slight straining in the left buttock, due to the heavier weight of my wallet (thanks to the fact that I’m no longer spending over $150 per week on cigarettes). I promised my family years ago that I would quit smoking by the time I was 35 years old. I never really had any intention of keeping that promise, but here I am… 34 years old, and I have successfully quit smoking. My family is happy. I’m happy. And others are happy for me. I even Vape at work (cashier at a drug store… my other, part-time job) right in front of customers. I have never heard a complaint from any of them. None of them have complained to my management. In fact, most of them congratulate me for quitting. I hope that my story can not only inspire others to quit smoking through the use of E-cigarettes, but also open the eyes and the sense of social responsibility felt by the Food and Drug Administration. It would be wonderful if this miraculous technology were allowed to continue to be made available to the public, regulated only as much as is necessary to keep E-liquid out of the hands of minors, and to keep ingredients sterile and pure. I believe it would be an enormous mistake of social irresponsibility with deadly consequences for the FDA to either ban E-liquid flavors or E-cigarettes altogether. It would be counter-productive to limit the amount of nicotine in the E-liquids to such a small amount that current smokers would not be able to transition effectively. It would also be a horribly irresponsible mistake to over-regulate E-cigarettes so much that only Big Tobacco can afford to meet the regulations. Regulating E-cigarettes in favor of the three largest tobacco corporations (Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorrilard) would permit them to include unhealthy, highly addictive additives, like reconstituted tobacco for example, into their already-developing E-cigarette brands, and progress toward harm reduction in the field of nicotine consumption would be indeffinately halted. Do the right thing and remember that millions of people the world over have found their health savior in E-cigarettes.