I started smoking at the age of 14, while in high school. I’m sure many other smokers started their addiction in high school as well. IT only began as one cigarette per day on my walk home from school, but before I knew it I was smoking regularly when I wasn’t home, even sneaking into my school bathroom to get a quick smoke in. By the age of 19, I had progressed to 2 packs per day, due to a combination of boredom and stress. I gained a serious amount of weight, ballooning from 180lbs to 270lbs in less than a year. I tried to quit, using the patch, but failed. I smoked so much that I caused myself serious dental damage as well. I attempted quitting again at the age of 21, again with the patch, but the unexpected loss of a pet led me to bum a smoke off a class mate in college, and the ball got rolling again. I made a more serious attempt when I was 25, using the prescription drug Chantix combined with the nicotrol inhaler. The drug seemed to do nothing at all, while the inhaler was unpleasant to use, and prohibitively expensive. I fell back to old habits. Later that year, the inevitable happened… I lost all my teeth as a result of smoking. I was in so much pain I had to have them all removed, they were beyond fixing, despite $25,000 worth of effort trying. I was 25 and toothless. I still am to this day because I cannot afford dental implants. Some years would pass before the next attempt at the age of 28. I heard about a new alternative, Blu cigs. I ordered my starter pack, and while the technology was very neat, it just didn’t work very well, and was more expensive to use than cigarettes due to the low nicotine content and small amount of liquid in each cartridge. I gave up after a few weeks, and went back to smoking again. I would occasionally use snus to curb cravings, but it only went so far. About a year later, a friend came to visit me who I hadn’t seen in a long time. She was vaping using a Joye Ego, something I had never seen before, and didn’t know existed. I thought Blu was the only option! She let me try hers, and even refilled some of my Blu cartridges with flavors from PureSmoker. I was hooked! I had to have it! I placed an order that day for my own Ego kit, along with some sample flavors. I was excited that I may have finally found what I was looking for! About a week later, my new kit and flavors arrived. After charging the battery and filling a cartomizer with Firecracker from PureSmoker, I took my first hit. Wow… just… wow… I thought. I had no idea it could be like this. I took a few more puffs. I began to tear up a bit. This is finally it! I thought, as I crushed my remaining cigarettes and threw them in the trash. It would be 2 weeks before I even tried smoking again. I don’t even know why I did, I was happy with vaping. Curiosity, I suppose? I bummed a smoke from a friend, and stepped outside to light up. I took one puff from the cigarette… and threw up. I couldn’t even stomach it anymore! There was nothing pleasant about smoking left for me. The smell was atrocious. The taste was even worse. I felt nausea immediately. I tossed the cigarette on the ground and walked away. In the coming months, my health improved. I no longer felt nauseous all the time, I could really taste and enjoy food again, and my lung capacity returned to normal. All my friends converted to e-cigs as well, so I didn’t even have to be around second hand smoke. We are all much happier and healthier now. If electronic cigarettes were to be banned, that would be a death sentence to myself and many friends. We do not want to smoke, but we enjoy our nicotine. E-cigs give us what we need, safely. Even excessive taxation would make them prohibitively costly, and many of us would have no choice but to smoke again, while we watch our favorite small vendors go out of business. Electronic cigarettes saved my life. Not metaphorically, but literally. I have a long, happy life to look forward to now, thanks to vaping!