To whom it may concern, My name is Shane Goldsby and I am a former smoker. I smoked heavily for 18 years. I started smoking at the age of 15. Both my parents smoked, many of my friends smoked and I had easy access to cigarettes and cigarette butts that I could re-light. For a time when I started I would smoke for a day or two and then stop for a day or two thinking I could avoid addiction. Eventually my stop times grew shorter and shorter and I was a full blown smoker. Turning 18 was awesome for me because it meant I could buy smokes for myself and not have to shoulder tap years went by and I didn’t really care that I smoked, I enjoyed it and it hadn’t impacted me either financially or medically. in my 20’s it became apparent that I smoked too much when I realized that the price was going up in both regards. A pack of smokes ran me about 4 bucks and as a pack and a half a day smoker of Camel 99’s my physical endurance suffered. I was 25 the first time I tried to quit. I used patches and it worked for a day or two. Then during an argument with my spouse which was likely due to the stress of quitting I went and bought a pack and from there I was pretty much a smoker again. after a couple years I decided to try again and this time got hypnotized. This actually worked for me for about a week. Then life’s little stresses set in and I missed smoking, so I went back to it. Every time I started again I’d smoke heavily for days, sometimes 2 full packs a day as though I was trying to make up for lost time. At age 28 I decided there was no way to get away from it and just accepted that I was a smoker and it was just one of my expenses. At age 32 I developed what would turn out to be chronic diverticulitis, a disease of the bowels, my doctors attributed it to smoking, drinking and poor diet. I was offered chantix and decided to try it. it did work for me, chantix made me moody and depressed but I had quit smoking. that lasted for about a week after I stopped. All told I’d been smoke free for 1 month and one week. I started smoking again and a diverticulitis infection returned. Ultimately I would visit the hospital, as a smoker, 3 times with this affliction before I had surgery to remove the portion of my colon that was problematic. I was told by my doctors that quitting smoking would significantly decrease my recovery time and I was anxious to be out of the hospital and back to work, after an 11 day hospital stay and a month of recovery I was back at work and smoke free all that time. after returning to work I remained smoke free for another 2 weeks or so. Almost 2 months this time and I started again. I again decided that quitting just wasn’t for me and I was just a smoker. At this point my smoking habit cost me about $175/month. I found a new girlfriend who was a non smoker after a year of quitting and she didn’t mind that I smoked. She would occasionally take puffs of mine and soon after she was a smoker again too. This girlfriend went on to become my second wife and we were both smokers with a whopping $350/month budgeted to smoking. Something in you just feels defeated when you do a budget and have to allocate the equivalent of a car payment to a filthy habit that robs you of your health and makes you smell bad. You keep doing it though, because it’s your thing and it feels comfortable. It was her idea to quit again when it came around and we both tried multiple times, different ways to quite. cold turkey; 3 days and failure. lozenges; 5 days and failure. cold turkey again; 6 days and failure. Patches; a $40 box, 3 days and failure again. Finally my wife bitterly accepted that I would continue to smoke while she quit. This of course did not work out and she just ended up blaming me for her being a smoker. The day came where a guy we hired at work used a Personal Vaporizer or PV for short. He let me try it and I thought this could work I ended up getting a simple mod. A vision ego spinner to be exact and a vivi nova clearomizer. I ordered some juice from a reputable site at 24mg nicotine and began using my PV. I also got my wife a pv and personalized it to her tastes. I bought one last pack of smokes. That pack ended up lasting me 1 full week and I haven’t bought a pack since. that was January 9th 2013. Today is July 30, 2013. Since that day I have smoked only two cigarettes. the last of the two I took drags from and disposed of. It tasted nasty to me in comparison to my ejuice. My wife stepped down her nicotine to 3mg and finally quit completely with very few side effects when she got pregnant. I still vape regularly and it doesn’t bother her. I have become an avid vaper. I have several clearomizer tanks, carto tanks and an RBA. I find the process of vaping enjoyable and treat it like a hobby. I very much enjoy the DIY aspects of the various PV’s and own several. including one very high end battery mod. About a week or two after I started vaping, my lungs purged tar and various other smoking remnants in the form of productive coughs. About a month after I started vaping I noticed I could run jog up a flight of stairs without being winded. That night I went home and ran as fast as I could on the treadmill for 32 minutes and 14 seconds before my legs wore out. While I was breathing heavily it was not the same as when I was winded from 3 minutes of exertion, like when I was a smoker. My sense of smell and taste returned, I was able to smell tobacco smoke residue on the cloths in my closet and on items in my house. I found the smell of cigarettes to be very strong and could smell them even if someone in the car in front of me was smoking. My mother who was a heavy smoker for 40 years, including while pregnant with me, has since put down the smokes and picked up a vaporizer. To date she has not smoked for 2 months, the longest she has ever quit before was 1 week. Not only am I convinced that vaping can take the place of smoking for anyone willing to give it a shot but through my own experience I am convinced it is a much healthier alternative and a rather enjoyable one. I have no intention of every putting down my PV. I have personally given 3 other people all the info to get started and quit smoking. I will advocate vaping for as long as I can to as many people as I can. I am healthier and happier because of it. Sincerely, Shane Goldsby