Where do I begin? I started using smokeless tobacco aka snuff, you know a pinch between your cheek and gum, and life is good. Well it was, then at age 19 I started smoking cigarettes, still dipping snuff, smoking cigarettes, as a soldier in the U.S.Army. After I left military service and persued a career in law enforcement, still smoking, still dipping snuff, was also using chewing tobacco, cigars…..anything that contained nicotine. I was a nicotine addict…big time. As the years drew on, I lost both my grandmothers, and an aunt to lung cancer caused by smoking. But still I smoked, still was dipping snuff, chewing tobacco, cigars…I was a nicotine addict! The years drew on, married, had children, but still I smoked, by now in the late 80’s both my grandfathers had passed on, due in part to smoking, and age. By the 90’s I knew I had to quit, and by early 1993 I had quit smoking cigarettes. But then that fateful phone call at 3 AM our mother had been killed in a car crash..it was Mothers Day!! We had lost our father in a car crash in 1987, never thinking our mother would meet the same fate just 6 short years later; our dad was 57, mom was 58. I am 56 years of age today July 6th 2014, I will turn 57 next month, I am our parents age when they died so horribly those many years ago. Its 3AM on Mothers Day, first thing I did after my brother called to tell me, was to verify this information, which turned out was factual, no doubt about it….our mom was dead. The next thing I did, was to get dressed, go to the closest convience store and buy 2 packs of the cheapest cigarettes I could get. Didn’t care, I was still dipping snuff, smoking cigars, I wanted cigarettes. I did quit smoking finally took me another handfull of years but i quit, wasn’t easy, even now almost 20 years since I quit cigarettes, I still, STILL would like to smoke. But lets look at what brings me to this story. You see, even though I had quit smoking cigarettes, I had gone back to cigars, was still dipping snuff, Copenhagen Long Cut being my prefered brand. I finally quit smoking cigars about 3 years ago, but again…I STILL want one, but I was still dipping Copenhagen Long Cut. By dipping Copenhagen, I don’t mean just a little bit, I mean I was going through a can and a half a day! Since there were no more cigarettes, no more cigars, no more pipe, I needed something to replace the amount of nicotine I had been ingesting into my system. Copenhagen Long Cut to the rescue..for you see, by now I was MAJORLY addicted to nicotine. In my 20+ years in law enforcement both as a police officer and as a corrections officer, I had lost many friends and fellow coworkers to either lung cancer caused by cancer, and throat and mouth cancer due to chewing tobacco and snuff like Copenhagen. About a year ago, maybe a year and a half, a very good friend and a retired police officer himself had quit snuff by going to an electronic cigarette. It took me several months of thinking, and thinking…ya know..if Duane quit snuff by going to an W-Cig, then why couldn’t I? Here I am, I am almost 56 years old, still dipping, I know that sooner or later if I DON’T quit, there is a better chance than not that I’ll contract some type of cancer. Its just a mater of time, sooner or later, it WILL happen. So, I searched the internet, mostly discounting the email ads for an E-Cig, but finally taking notice of these ads I ordered one. It took a matter of days and here in my hands was a means I hoped and prayed would allow me to get rid of any form of tobacco, and at some point nicotine altogether. At first this little E-Cig wasn’t bad, but although I did cut down some, didn’t really do all that much for me. By late Sept, early Oct. 2013 I was on the hunt for something that would really allow me to actually quit dippin, the snuff after 44-45 years had done a number on my teeth and gums…I REALLY needed to quit. I found online an online vendor that had batteries, and tanks and juices. These juices are not gels, although some of thes E-Juices are extremely thick, are NOT gels! These juices made primarily from vegetable glycerin and propelene glycol, with flavor and a small, ever so small amount of nicotine. I was in heaven…FINALLY, something that was akin to smoking, that gave me the nicotine I craved, in a small, easily transportable system. These APV or batteries and tanks as I call them, produce water vapor…let me stress this WATER VAPOR is released when ever you smoke. Its not really smoking though, is it? So, when I started I was at the max amount of nicotine allowable by law which was 3.6% by volume. We let me tell you, that quickly was brought down to 2.4% by volume, and by January 23 2014 I was finally free of a 45 year habit…dipping snuff. I feel that tobacco when refined by big tobacco is filled with not hundreds, but thousands of chemicals that keep you coming back for more and more. With what is now know as vaping, the amount of nicotine ingested is minute, with no harmful chemicals added to make it even more harmful. I have come to view vaping as my release, whenever I am stressed, or whenever my pain levels raise to heights you can’t imagine…wait…you didn’t know I was disabled in a prison riot in 1990, that I worked hurt for ten years. No..no you didn’t. Well I now have two diagnosed pain diseases, if not for vaping,(no..I don’t add anything to my e-juice), and the calming effects it has; maybe its just the whole hand to mouth thing I don’t know. What I do know is, that without vaping, I don’t know as if I wouldd have evr quit dipping snuff. Now the government wants to step in and ruin everything, please, just leave it alone and leave us vapers alone, we were doing just fine before you stuck your nose into our business. You favor big tobacco, because you get big money from them to squash the small start ups in the e-cig community. Just go home and leave us the hell alone. Thank you all for taking the time to read this story, it is a factual account in as short aforum as I can make it. I could go on and on, but time, and my pain levels do not permit such. I do apologize for any and all spelling errors, since the onset of CRPS and Arachnoiditis (google these disease..please), it will maybe give you some idea what I live with day in and day out, you may then realize WHY I like to vape. VAPE ON AMERICA!