My name is John Castle. I am a writer from the Phoenix area. I smoked cigarettes from the age of 19 until I turned 37. I initially tried electronic cigarettes at age 35, but the electronic cigarettes on the market at that time were too unreliable and too expensive for me to switch permanently. I subsequently attempted to switch from smoking to using American snus products. However, American Snus products were of very low quality and did not help in quitting. I then tried Swedish snus products and, although they are of extremely high quality and are less unhealthy than either cigarettes or American snus products, they were not easily enough available to make them an effective solution for quitting cigarette smoking. I have now been using electronic cigarettes since September of 2011. Because of the quality, simplicity, affordability and effectiveness of the liquid nicotine solution (or ejuice) currently available, and because of the quality and safety of the hardware products associated with vaping (the use of electronic cigarettes and ejuice) I have not smoked a single traditional tobacco cigarette in nearly a year. I believe that, without electronic cigarettes and ejuice, it would not have been possible for me to quit smoking. At issue is not merely the satisfaction of nicotine cravings but also the alteration of the psychological habits associated with consumption of traditional cigarettes. Vaping, as a replacement for smoking, carries several immediate benefits: Vapor tastes better. It smells better. The scent of vapor does not linger. Electronic cigarettes are safer not merely in the health sense, but in the more direct and immediate sense that, because there is no combustion, there is no associated risk of accidental fire. The health risks are also numerous. Although it is often stated that there is insufficient long term data to confirm that vaping is a medically safe practice, basic logic and readily available data firmly establish that vaping is certainly less unhealthy than smoking. I would like to issue this challenge to the learned persons who might read or hear this statement: If your concern is the health and long life of consumers, rather than the temptation of avarice which would see people continue to have their wealth plundered through taxation of a habit for which there is no safer, more affordable alternative; If your desire is to promote the well-being of the citizens who look to you to represent them, rather than the tobacco and pharmaceutical corporations whose cynical eyes fall endlessly to the bottom line and to nowhere else; Act to keep the market free. Act to keep healthy competition alive. Act to represent the consumer, on behalf of the common good, rather than to dictate to the consumer for the enrichment of the greedy and the tyrannical.