I started smoking at 15 and by 17 I was trying to quit since I married a non-smoker. I am now 58 years old so this has been a long journey. I have tried it all, patches, gums, prescribtions and continued to smoke even if it made me dizzy or high. None of them worked. I don’t believe it’s just the nicotine that I’m addicted to. I tried so many times that it became demoralizing to try again. I had picked up a cig-alike in a convienence store on impulse and it helped to sit through a movie, but little else. I spotted a dedicated retai store one day and stopped in. One puff and I thought THIS I could do. It was a miracle. I had no intention of quitting before that and now I thought I could. I specifically chose not to include tobacco flavors because I wanted to remove my thoughts of smoking as much as possible. That was a litte harsh and I now keep one tobacco available for extreme cravinngs. In many ways, quitting is like peeling the layers off an onion because it’s not just the substance, but the ritual, habits, self-image that needs to change along with it and that’s a learning process. Within the first week I noticed considerable improvements and not just in physical health, but in self esteem and pride. I no longer smelled like smoke which made me a member of society again. It was a huge disappointment when I broke down under stress and bought another pack. That’s when I discovered I needed to have a higher nicotine level around, in a tobacco flavor and a more powerful device that could deliver a stronger amount of vapor. I also improved my methods of inhalation. One of the amazing improvements that has occurred with ecigs has been the amount of customization allowed. I firmly believe there is a product available that will assist any smoker to quit now. I find myself vaping less during the day and using higher strengths just upon waking. I always told myself I was very good at quitting, just not good at staying quit. I quit smoking every single day for decades until it was so demoralizing and dehumanizing that I could not do it anymore. And then I found ecigs. They were a miracle. I know more about what’s in a ecig than I know about what’s in a cigarette and for the FDA to imply otherwise destroys my trust in the agency. I can feel the difference between vaping and smoking. So can other ex-smokers. It is obvious within the first week to a month of vaping. I am angry at tobacco companies for hiding so many ingrediants in cigarettes that make it hard to quit and I don’t want them doing the same to liquids used in ecigs. I am angry at pharmecutical companies that push products more likely to end my life from suicide than smoking would. I never want to touch their products again and I won’t. Ecigs could be the public health miracle of the 21st century. Unfortunatley, I have to wonder how may kids stop getting healthcare or how state budgets will suffer if I quit. Taking on taxes that are depended on creates an unholy alliance where way too many government’s have an investment in seeing me continue smoking, rather than assisting me to quit. I hope that the FDA will be able to seperate themselves from commercial, marketplace and governmental financial interests when making decisions and not overlook what could be the biggest break through in public health. I am far more concerned about the 4,000+ unknown chemicals in traditional cigarettes than I am concerned about nicotine content. Those chemicals are missing in ecigs. I want to keep it that way and I deserve a choice. The FDA destroyed RYO that was chemical free and I don’t want to see them do it again.