I smoked mt first cigarette when I was 12 as an experiment. I copped one from my father’s back and promptly became dizzy and sick. I was around cigarettes as I was growing up, exposed to them by family and friends and probably started buying them at 14-15 yrs. I remember actively quitting in high school for about 1 month. At the time, I was probably smoking 1/2 pack a day. As I grew into adulthood I was smoking a pack + per day. I had money!! In my 30’s I tried the nicotine patch, I wasn’t ill, just tired of the habit. I quickly became accustomed to the extra nicotine gained while smoking with the patch on. It didn’t work. I continued the my 40’s, experiencing increased ear infectio0ns and colds. In my 50’s my shortness of breath was apparent. I could no longer take a long inhale without coughing copiously. Heart pains started showing up, my lung capacity was shrinking and the only thing that seemed to work was another cigarette. Surfing the internet, I started coming across e cigarette ads. In it’s early stages, I wasn’t impressed very much. As time went by, there were more ads and I started seeing them in the drug store when I purchased my Marlboro’s. Eventually, I stumbled across enough information that encouraged me to try them. The first a cig lookalike, was disappointing but the Blu showed me they were almost there, almost good enough, and I knew there was more information available. so I investigated. Ending up at e-cigarette-forum.com, I gathered more information than I could handle but was able to make my first serious purchase with the intention of quitting tobacco. I vowed to stay away from the fruity and candy stuff, I wanted to take this seriously. The first tobacco flavors were wonderful flavors, and I would marvel at their complexities as I smoked my regular Marlboro while wondering when the change would occur. I had ordered a sample pack and ended up trying the vanilla. I smoked maybe a dozen cigarettes after that but I was done and I knew I was done when I has vaped the vanilla. I didn’t need to replace the tobacco flavor. I needed something better. Since I have tried many different flavors but no cigarette. My lung capacity has come back. I have had 0 heart pains. I did have a brief episode where tears were rolling down my cheeks and I feeling of sadness came over me for absolutely no reason. I knew there was no reason and attribute this to my lack of intake of maoi inhibitors which are present in tobacco smoke. I have read that this effect is even more pronounced for others. At my job, the smokers would go out at break time and come back smelling like ashtrays. My non smoking managers and supervisors were so ecstatic that I quit that they allowed me to vape at my desk, not as policy, but as encouragement. I am grateful for this. This is not an issue any longer as I can go without. The innovation in devices and flavors has been astounding. I believe the cigalike products are essential to get many people to try the product as a substitute but the more advanced products keep them from relapsing. They can be more economical too, but the inventive minds keep tinkering and improving. I have essentially moved from cigarette like habits to pipe habits where the duration is not dependent on the length of the cigarette but as long or as short as I please. I would still be smoking without this product or I’d be seriously ill maybe dead from a heart attack. This industry is doing so well with the limited regulations. It saddens me to see other countries instituting bans for no good reason. Let alone municipalities and other government bodies simply ignoring the health gains in their bans and odd rules. Some of this is financially motivated, just greed, none of it is well considered. It is my hope that going forward, people with authority to make a difference, decide based on the enormous body of anecdotal evidence and not knee jerk reactions, what if’s and any desire to placate existing infrastuctures, tobacco settlement funded, quasi govenmental bodies, for example.