For those of you whom have never smoked tobacco, rest assured it is truly the most God-awful and deadly addiction. If you have smoked for any duration, you understand the health risks it poses to you and your loved ones. You understand the cost smoking has on the American economy. You understand the difficulty (understatement) of quitting. And, you understand the shortcomings (again an understatement) of the currently available smoking cessation products and methods ?? until the invention of the electronic cigarette. Like heroin or cocaine cessation, the physical and psychological symptoms associated with quitting smoking are unpleasant at the least and prohibitive at the worst. As a smoker of 22 years, I have tried nearly every product, method, manner, gimmick, and service for smoking cessation. I’ve tried nicotine replacement patches and gums (which made me sick to my stomach, gave me heart palpitations, and put my life in danger because I continued to smoke while I used them). I’ve tried various pharmaceutical solutions – Welbutrin gave me seizures and panic/anxiety to this day; and Chantix had no effect at all despite warnings as extreme as suicide potential. Besides weaning myself and going ??cold turkey,? I’ve even tried acupuncture, chiropractic and hypnosis to quit smoking. I’ve tried lower-nicotine cigarettes and I just ended up smoking more. I’ve tried hiding cigarettes but like a junkie, I always found them or bummed them from other smokers. You name it; I’ve done it in a vain attempt to quit smoking. For many like me, it??s a fact that none of these methods will EVER reduce their desire to smoke – much less quit. These people will just continue to smoke until their death which will likely be complicated by COPD and Emphysema. Beyond not quitting, the various smoking cessation methods available today actually made me smoke more in the long run. Just like the dieting reflex triggers your starvation reflex causing you to eat more, smoking cessation products usually resort in smoking more after an attempt to quit. This became a vicious and deadly cycle that had me on a track to certain death. But then something happened to break that deadly cycle. Electronic cigarettes entered my life and have since had a very positive impact ?? not just on me but also on those around me. One day I saw someone with an electronic cigarette and asked him about it. He had nothing but positive things to say about it and even let me try it. At this point, I had one half of a carton of cigarettes left and I went to the electronic cigarette store and purchased my first product. Despite purchasing a low-quality (as in it constantly was malfunctioning) electronic cigarette, I was EASILY able to stop smoking by the time my five remaining packs of cigarettes we’re gone. I did so WITHOUT ANY of the stress, anxiety, and side-effects that accompany other smoking cessation methods. If the previous statement didn??t get your attention then you might as well stop reading because no statement will. Within the first two months of using my electronic cigarette, I was able to learn more about them through various online discussion forums, and as a result, was able to make better purchasing decisions. This led me to using an electronic cigarette modification device otherwise known as a ??mod?. The great thing about using a mod is that it utilizes a refillable canister capable of holding whatever electronic cigarette liquid I want to vaporize. Beyond the various flavors of liquids that are available, these liquids also come in varying nicotine levels. As such, I was able to match my original nicotine dose in the beginning and then easily and gradually wean myself from 12 mg to 4 mg within a very short nine months. At this rate, within another nine month, I will be 100% nicotine free. Again, if the previous statement doesn??t catch your attention, then you??re not paying attention or sadly have an alternative agenda. To the uneducated, electronic cigarettes surely must seem like a swap of one bad habit for another. I would venture to say, for those who want to quit smoking, this statement simply isn??t true. The electronic cigarette works as a smoking cessation method because it favorably reproduces the smoking sensation without all the side effects of traditional cigarettes AND gives the user a means for weaning themselves in a manner customized to their habit and health needs. As a result of quitting smoking, my health began to really realize some benefits within 6 weeks of quitting my 30 cigarette-a-day habit. The most noticeable benefit was the wheezing and the coughing up of tar-infused phlegm stopped?? completely. Notice, I didn??t say abated or eased. It stopped. Within 8 weeks, my sense of taste and smell began to return. It was at this point that the smell of burning cigarettes, ashtrays, and smokers began to become as revolting to me as it is to non-smokers. Now my stamina is returning and my breathing is slowly returning to normal. Perhaps unrelated, my blood-pressure is returning into the normal range, my sleep apnea is reduced, and my panic/anxiety is more manageable. Are you hearing this? Now I??m not saying the electronic cigarette is the Messiah come to save the world. I??m not saying that it is without shortcomings or health risks ?? I don??t know. I am simply saying that for me and other former smokers, the benefits have strongly outweighed the alternatives ?? even those endorsed by ??Big Industry? and the FDA. In fact, just on my little suburban block of middle-class America, I have 3 neighbors (immediately adjacent homes) who are ex-smokers because of electronic cigarette use. In conclusion, I??d just like to bring to your attention the hypocrisy of regulating the growing and helpful industry of electronic cigarettes. Let??s first look at Big Tobacco ?? they??ve run with little to no oversight for decades and have marketed deadly products to nearly all age groups. The deaths and sickness they??ve caused are not debatable ?? they are criminal. Or, how about the alcohol industry which has caused millions of deaths through drunken fatalities and related health problems? Lastly, let??s look at the pharmaceutical industry and its legalized ??pushing? of drugs to an unwitting and unknowing public. This industry creates ??designer drugs? for problems we didn??t even know we had. Simply watch any evening of TV and you will see dozens of ads for FDA approved drugs whose long list of side-effects are worse than the very symptoms they were designed to cure. Meanwhile, because of lax oversight, the quantities of drug recalls are nothing short of the ambulance chasing attorneys who litigate against them. Yet the chemists at the big pharmaceutical companies continue rushing the latest and greatest drugs for fixing our sagging libidos and psyches. Sadly, each of these industries continues to thrive thanks to strong lobbying and failed oversight. And finally, those of us with any intelligence at all understand why the government wants to regulate the only product that actually works well enough to help people like me actually quit smoking ?? because competing lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry want it and because it??s low hanging fruit for more government tax revenues. Regardless of what you may be thinking about me and my statement, please know this: I am not affiliated with any cause or group lobbying for the electronic cigarette industry and the rights of its users. I am simply a man who has found success battling the crippling addiction of smoking cigarettes in an electronic cigarette. As such, I ask that the government allow this industry to continue unhindered as a viable smoking cessation product. History will show that it saves millions of lives.