I wanted to tell my story because of all the negative stories I’ve been hearing in the mainstream media and in the vaping community. I started smoking when I was 15 yrs old, my parents smoked and some of the my friends were smoking. In the 1970’s it wasn’t reported as bad for you like it is today. I was smoking about a pack a day till I was around 42 yrs. old then I started driving an 18 wheeler for a living and my habit increased to almost 2 packs a day. Right before I started driving a truck, I was unemployed for about 3 months and living with my parents. My mother had been treated for lung cancer and was in remission. I didn’t have enough money to buy cigarettes and quit for about 2 months. I started working again and as soon as my first paycheck started smoking again cause the urge was still there. In 2001, my mother died when cancer had spread to her brain. 10 years earlier, I went to see my father who I hadn’t seen since I was 3 yrs. old. He was dieing from throat cancer and you would think that I would of quit but I didn’t. It wasn’t till this year when I started coughing a lot more and would get headaches from smoking that finally made me want to quit. I knew that the nicotine patch for me was a waste of money. The side affects they advertized on chantix commercials kept me from trying that and then I started seeing e cigarettes around and checked on them. I got the impression that it wasn’t nearly as harmful and the act of smoking like a cigarette was what appealed to me. I continued to smoke regular cigarettes for about a month then quit. When I started vaping as we call it, I was able to cut down to around 10 cigarettes a day. My coughing stopped within 2 days and I could breath a little better right away too. I smoked cigarettes for 40 years so my lungs are already beyond help from quitting but I do feel better. It’s way too early to know what the long term effects are going to be but I would hope that this product in some form will survive. I wouldn’t of quit without it. Sincerely, Paul Lewis