UPDATE 10/6/11 Next month it have been a year now since I smoked my last analog cigarette!  Today Dave announced today that he received his e-cigs as well!!!]

E-Cigarettes: Can They Help You Quit?
e-cigs: the first healthy cigarette ?
Electronic cigarettes…does anyone here or do you know someone….

These are all other threads on the Forum, but I’m putting these here again because they outlined questions I had…

I’ve been a smoker for 40 plus years, up to 2 plus packs a day, then just over one pack, and finally just over 1/2 pack.

When I moved here with Erik I began to confine myself to smoking ONLY in one tiny bathroom in the basement.

I do NOT smoke in the car.

I light one cigarette, take 2-3 pulls, butt it, and return to that cigarette later until finally it’s smoked to the end.  No part of my cigarettes are wasted because I retain any butt until it has been smoked to the filter.

Most of the places we go to beyond home restrict smoking or don’t allow it at all even outside over acres of ground

In the end, I have been completely constricted and fettered.  I have learned that because I smoke I am basically unwelcome, a filthy pariah, so I seldom go anywhere now.

I am not unique.

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I have also learned that nicotine by itself is much the same as caffine.  Product preparation and delivery as the issues.  For example, caffine typically comes in fluid forms so one generally consumes it through the mouth and into the stomach, not through the nose or lungs.  Caffine, like nicotine is addictive.

After asking questions here to which none knew any answers about e-cigarettes, I decided I needed to get the answers myself so after a lot of research from users, doctors and even the government (most of these are outdated now though), I bought an e-cigarette starter kit.

1.  It was delivered by mail and required a signature and proof of age (in my case proving I’m over 18 is not a problem)
2.  The first FULL day I smoked a total of 4 real tobacco cigarettes along with my e-cigarettes (I usually smoke about 15 tobacco cigarettes)
3.  The second FULL day I smoked a total of 1 real tobacco cigarette along with my e-cigarettes.
4.  This is the third FULL day so I’ll let you know.

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To waylay any ideas about these being suitable for cocain or crack…........:

1.  Most of the e-cigarette is a battery (enclosed).  The mouth piece is a lightweight plastic holder for the atomizer.  The cigarette cannot hold anything that burns, nor does the battery heat up beyond what you expect from a penlight.

2.  There is no smoke or danger chemically or otherwise for anyone (including yourself) except water mist.  A water mist does come out depending on how hard you pull on the atomizer.

3.  You can tell when the cartridge atomizer is empty when you can’t taste the flavor anymore.  Yep, you can get cartridges in cherry, vanilla, java, tobacco AND you can get them in varying degrees of nicotine OR no nicotine at all.  You can also tell when you’ve had too much nicotine because, like having too many expressos, you’ll have so much energy!

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The difficulties for me are changing or recognizing habits tied to smoking regular cigarettes:

1.  Because I smoked in just one tiny room, I became too used to jumping up MANY times during the day to head to that tiny room.  I keep suddenly jumping up, standing there like an idiot trying to figure out where the hell I’m going because I no longer need to hide anywhere…........my cigarette is right here, I can smoke it anywhere, anytime, in the company of anyone.

I have become institutionalized in a way and now I’m free and can’t quite figure out that I am.

—-OMG we’re going to the movie tonight and I’ll be able to smoke right there!!!

Good luck Huli
I hope it works out for you

Good Luck Huli!

I too have been considering using a E-cig.  The only problems i see is that one must often sign up for automatically renewing orders from the offering company, and reading that the US has banned importation of said devices. (That and reading on the web that there are many communities now trying to outlaw the E-cig.  Their reasons seem pretty specious, but i won’t go into that here…)

I look forward to seeing how it goes for you.

daveprime - 11 November 2010 05:19 PM

Good Luck Huli!

I too have been considering using a E-cig.  The only problems i see is that one must often sign up for automatically renewing orders from the offering company, and reading that the US has banned importation of said devices. (That and reading on the web that there are many communities now trying to outlaw the E-cig.  Their reasons seem pretty specious, but i won’t go into that here…)

I look forward to seeing how it goes for you.

I don’t have to sign any contract with the company (or any of them that I’ve gone to on the web or out) so that’s a new one on me…

You can buy from other countries though a lot of reviewers say that those purchased in other countries are frequently ones being offered at kiosks at Malls and a lot of folks felt they were not made as well as those here.  I have never purchased from any kiosks myself though I’ve seen many so apparently they are not banned.  I don’t see how our government could ban them anyway since they are still trying to understand them well enough here. 

I also cannot see how e-cigs can be outlawed though since they are actually inert except for nicotine which does not further than the user (nothing out to the air though there can be about .01% nicotine sometimes on exhale but you’d have to be sucking that directly from the smoker’s mouth when it’s exhaled) no chemicals really.

1. The composition of e-liquid (Atomized e-Liquid): Vegetable Glycerin,, pure water, glycerol, tobacco flavor, nicotine(from tobacco leaf), and so on.

  http://www.bestecig.com/product_view.asp?id=34

If atomizers become outlawed, then those having to carry oxygen, or asthma inhalers may also be breaking the rules if they use them in public (since these two would obviously be more problematic to those in the immediate vicinity than an e-cigarette)

About the ban, I think it was some version of this story:

News

(Be careful if you wander around much on that site. One might find some disconcerting facts about second hand smoke studies and the like…)

My sister quit smoking a few years back. Patch worked for her, but I told her if it didn’t, I’d come stay with her for a few weeks, and stand behind her with a whiffle bat…

Yes I’d heard about this quite awhile ago and it causes a kind of confusion as to ‘why ban’

this article makes it a little more clear:  http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/risky-business/2009/4/16/possible-e-cigarette-ban.html

But some people aren’t comfortable with the idea of an alternative that is is still addictive. E-cigarettes currently exist in a legal gray zone—they have not been officially approved or banned by the FDA, but they are still commonly sold in the US. But the FDA has recently hinted that it will soon make a decision:

  “We’re concerned about the potential for addiction to and abuse of these products,” says FDA spokeswoman Rita Chappelle. “Some people may mistakenly perceive these products to be safer alternatives to conventional tobacco use.”

  The agency has opened an investigation and has refused to allow e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-pipes to cross the border because they’re considered new drugs that require FDA approval.

basically the concern is nicotine, which is certainly addictive and other methods for delivery to assist stopping smoking can be purchased in drug stores such as patches, gum, nasal mists etc.  These are, of course, controlled both by the government areas in health etc.  Right now e-cigarettes are too new and the FDA isn’t really sure where to put these or if they should be put anywhere at all. 

In large part it isn’t nicotine addiction that concerns most people about cigarette smokers; it’s the tars second-hand smoke they exhale when they smoke, and the smoke rising off the end of a lighted cigarette they object to and are afraid of.  E-cigs don’t have any of this.  They also do not have the tars that are sucked in from fired tobacco either and it’s the tars that kill. 

But smoking an e-cigarettre is also not like smoking a tobacco cigarette either.  It is a way to prevent further damage to your lungs.  I developed a very bad croopy cough since moving here.  During just this 3-day period that cough is almost gone.  I hesitated to even add this because I almost feel like it’s just wishful thinking….

The first generation of these things was also found to be easily adaptable to smoking crack cocaine.

Robin, I don’t know how long you sister has smoked, but I can attest that even my doctors told me I had to be very careful if I stopped, that I could not just ‘stop’ without the danger of’ yes, a stroke. 

Nicotine becomes a part of your physiology over time and I’ve been smoking as long (or longer) than some of you have even been alive.  I was also warned about the patch because it could be too overwhelming, and because of serious sinus difficulties nasal mist is NOT recommended and because I wear partials, gum is not an alternative. 

I can tell, even with these, that there is a drop in nicotine and I can feel some withdrawal but because I have the enhaler I can control it without having a steady stream of nicotine delivery (as with a patch). 

Thirty years ago I attempted a ‘stop’ cold turkey.  My hands and fingers curled inward and I had a hard time even straightening them out so I couldn’t work; my shoulders began to bend; my vision was double, I had diharrea, headache…................ The doctor told me that these would persist for about a month, during which time I would not be able to work effectively so unless I had that much vacation, it was not a good idea.

I did stop for three years when I was having babies though.  I had only been smoking for a couple years before that though so it was not a huge issue at all.

Let me add this: if you do NOT smoke now, please NEVER EVER start!  For me, not smelling tobacco for three days is a very pleasant experience.  Not coughing myself dizzy is a huge experience.  I do not doubt that these are helping me either.  (Oh, you can only take one or two puffs and then you have to wait 5-10 minutes before the atomizer will permit another)

Mm. She was much more casual about it, for much shorter.. but yeah, it’s not easy.

I’m reminded of Larry King talking about how he quit… he had a heart attack. Never felt any urge to smoke at all, after that.

And that’s not how I want to quit.  These help, a LOT.  I don’t think they’re for everyone though.  The ones I’m using do not produce a lot of mist, sometimes none at all and they are black with a blue light at the end.  They remind me of a pen flashlight for sure. 

When you pull the light comes on so you know the battery is being used.  It turns off when you stop. 

If the light flashes 10 times it’s telling you that you’ve been over puffing and you need to stop for awhile.

If the light flashes 20 times you need to recharge your battery.  My starter kit came with two ways to recharge and one is by charging the box that holds the batteries and cartridges itself and has one slot to recharge a battery when you’re away from home.  The other is a usb plug that you screw the battery into. 

These control how you ‘smoke’, how much you are trying to smoke and how much nicotine you’re allowed.  It helps you change the ‘way’ you smoked before, ‘where’ you smoked, ‘how’ you smoked etc.  You need to change a lot of behaviors that become part of an addiction.  These carry you through it and give you no choice but to follow them exactly the way they’re designed.

By the way, you would not believe how many e-cig spammers we’ve been deleting lately!