Hi. My name is Sam. I smoked for 15 years, and have hated it for the past 10 years or so. I have tried everything to quit smoking cigarettes, short of hypnotherapy. I have tried all NRT products in australia, and Champix. All have failed for me. I have been using an electronic cigarette for 3months now. I started for an initial 2 weeks, realised it was working for me, ran out of nicotine eliquid and ordered some more plus an upgrade to my equipment. Using these products has not been easy sailing for me. It has been an educational rollercoaster, but a very enjoyable one. I have used all NRT’s as stated above, from tabs, to gum, patches several times. I haven’t used the spray. But won’t because none of the other NRT’s have been effective for me. I am currently using an ego twist battery with a bottom coil clearomiser but will be upgrading as soon as my vape mail arrives. I will be upgrading to several mods, one regulated one mechanical and am very excited to be using a rebuildable atomiser. I have been offered many cigarettes in the past few months and have refused them all. Besides the offensive smell and taste, I now feel I am a non-smoker. I vape instead. When i started using the electronic cigarette i smoked tobacco occasionally, then ran out of nicotine eliquid. I was devastated and had to anxiously await my nicotine juice which isn’t legally available in australia. During this time i smoked tobacco because i felt it was my only recourse and hated every puff of smoke. It was and is disgusting. I can’t stand the way smokers smell now. I feel like a hypocrite but this is the truth. When my nicotine arrived i quit smoking for good and setup a quit day starting as of that day. I threw my tobacco out. The longest i was able to quit tobacco products, before the initial two weeks of using an electronic cigarette was 2 months. I have exceeded this by a month now. I am so grateful to the vaping community both internationally (via e-cigarette-forum, youtube, and Aussie Vapers Forum) for helping me on my journey. I’ve asked so many questions and felt really down on my luck at times, before having my problems solved by this great community. I have given up smoking, and although i use an alternative, I justify this by my experience that this is a better alternative. I have recently discovered that the new NRT spray product uses many of the ingredients that my electronic cigarette uses, and although this isn’t proof itself, it is proof enough. I breath better, I do not get as puffed (I’ve been exercising regularly since quitting, and I attribute this to the positive attitude i’ve acquired since quitting)and I’ve just gone through the first winter (in australia) where I haven’t had a single chest infection. I did have one head cold, but this also effected my child and his mother, so i figure we were always going to cop that one, and i know it would have been worse if i was smoking. I do not wake up coughing my lungs up. I do not cough in the mornings anymore!!! I can’t believe it but as i type this it is the truth!!! I used to wake up and cough my lungs up EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! people in the house would know i was awake by my coughing!!! I am so grateful to e-cigarettes. If there was a way to make them safer then great. Do the research first to prove that they are unsafe. innocent till proven otherwise. If they are safER than cigarettes…yet cigarettes are allowed…then i ask that electronic cigarettes be left alone. If electronic cigarettes were banned…I would still vape. I won’t stop until they are proven to be as bad as cigarettes. I will continue to vape and cut my nicotine dependance by 1mg/ml per month. That is my plan. That’s what i’m sticking with.