I started smoking at age 13 and continued to smoke for an other 20 years. While I knew it was unhealthy for me, and unpleasant for others to be exposed to second hand smoke, and to also smell me after smoking I was unable to give up smoking no matter what I did before I tried the personal vaporizer, also known as an e-cigarette. In the 20 years that I smoked, I tried to quit numerous times. I used the gum, and I smoked while chewing said gum. In short the gum was an absolute failure. I tried the patch–I smoked on that to–and the patch was an absolute failure. I even did cold turkey several times. Each of these so-called proven cessation methods did not work for me, and didn’t work for anyone I know. I did manage to quit smoking though using two methods. First was Snus from Sweden. Indeed I would have stayed smoke free had the recession not happened and I lost my job. The fact is that while snus did indeed work for me to keep me from smoking it had several draw backs. The first is that it is very expensive. American varieties of snus have too low a nicotine content to satisfy me to start so only the Swedish varieties worked, and second the Swedish varieties of snus are heavily taxed. When I lost my job I was able to contenue using snus and eventually went back to smoking over the course of about three months to address my desire to use nicotine. In short that cessation failure was caused directly by exhortation level taxes on a safe product with few health concerns imposed by the government at the behest of a special interest group (the nicotine and tobacco prohibitionists). Had American tobacco companies developed a cheaper equivalent, or better yet the import taxes, tobacco taxes, and sin taxes not existed on Swedish brands of snus I would have never gone back to smoking. The second time I tried a reduced harm nicotine product was in February of 2013, and it was the personal vaporizer (also known as the electronic cigarette). That story is slightly more interesting than how I took up snus, with snus I bought a can, liked it and quit smoking almost immediately. It was a product that I had gotten familiar with by exposure to it in pipe tobacco shops as I smoked pipes rather than cigarettes. At first I thought that e-cigarettes were a scam. There was no way that they could work. I had heard from other people that they quit smoking by using them. Other claims from people that it was better than smoking. Needless to say I was skeptical. But I took a gamble with them and bought an Njoy King (a disposable e-cigarette) on a whim while buying lighter fluid for my Zippo. An other customer was buying some and I asked her about the product and she told me she had quit smoking using them. Naturally I was curious to see if it might work for me or if it wouldn’t. That Njoy King lasted me about 4 hours of use. Disappointing to be sure in that regard. However, I noticed something. That something was I actually enjoyed vaping. I determined that since I did like this disposable product that I could perhaps find a better–rechargeable and/or refillable-product that I could use to reduce my smoking. My thinking being that with smoking it isn’t the nicotine or even the tobacco that harms the body of the user–rather it is the inhaling smoke into the lungs that does all the damage. This of course lead me to internet forums related to vaping (since using a personal vaporizer one does not inhale a smoke so smoking is inappropriate to use) and from there got advice to buy several products. I tried those products and got several e-liquids I thought I might like. That was February 9, 2013. That was the day I last smoked a pipe of tobacco. In the case of the personal vaporizer I did not intend to quit smoking, it happened on its own. What I found was that I preferred vaping to smoking. Since that time I have gradually reduced my nicotine levels in my liquids and though I probably won’t reduce the nicotine content to zero mg/mL (I have neither the desire to do that nor plan to do that), I do have the option to vape without nicotine if I want to. Something that no tobacco product can offer. I have also noticed something else too. Since finally quitting smoking for good, I’ve noticed that I sleep easier, I can taste food better, my sense of smell has returned to the point that I can smell things that even my nonsmoker significant other cannot, I find it easier to exercise. In short since switching my over all general health is better.