I smoked 1-2 packs a day for 15 years. Even when I was completely broke, I smoked. I raided public ashtrays for butts and fountains for change. Even when I lost my job last year and it took a month to find a new one, I chainsmoked. I sold plasma for cigarette money and mostly just ate rice. I never even made a serious effort to quit. I didn’t want to quit; I loved smoking and accepted the fact that I’d die in terrible health with a cigarette in hand. I tried Welbutrin once, just thought I’d give it a go (my family doesn’t smoke and I know it always distressed them that I did) because I heard that it helped people quit. It just made the cigarettes taste really weird. I smoked them anyway. My mother bought me e-cigs a few years ago, the kind that are made to look like cigarettes and have a disposable nicotine cartridge. I tried to use them for her sake but I didn’t like them at all and didn’t slow down on the real thing one bit. Then, just three months ago, my girlfriend bought herself a newer- model e-cigarette and got one for me as well. I didn’t want it, wasn’t interested in trying it, and didn’t want to quit smoking. But I have. Effortlessly. I gave it a try, found some flavors that I liked and over the course of just a few weeks I came to prefer it over cigarettes. I feel like that’s a really, really big deal because I was a very particular smoker. I only smoked Parliament full flavors. Period. Never bummed smokes from others because I didn’t want whatever they had. They are also way more expensive than other brands. I don’t actually know how this happened. Quitting smoking has been such an ordeal for everyone I know who has tried, and I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t picked it back up at some point. All I know is that I expected to smoke until it killed me, and now I have a full pack of Parliaments sitting next to me on the porch and I couldn’t care less. I only bought them because the gas station attendant had them ready for me as soon as I pulled up, and I thought I might want them. But I don’t. I’ve even started to become sensitive to cigarette smoke. It used to make me think mmm, that smells good, I want one … Now I find it irritating. I’m using a medium-high nicotine liquid for now, but I’m going to try a lower dose with my next purchase. They also offer all the liquids nicotine-free, and I’d like to use those later as well. I really hope all this doesn’t end up being banned. It’s helped me so much. I understand that using these products makes me a part of an uncontrolled-test-group, and that because they’re so new nobody can say what will happen to me down the line if I choose to continue using them. I’m okay with all of that because I’d have smoked myself to death and been too poor to pay for my own medical care when that happened. We may not quite know what these e-cigs might do, but we know exactly what regular cigarettes will do. If someone like me can quit smoking without even meaning to by using these products, they’re a miracle.