I quit smoking cigarettes about four months ago.  That doesn’t sound very impressive but when you consider I’d been smoking for the past 46 years that really is an accomplishment.  I didn’t do it because my health was terrible , its fine, and I didn’t do it because I stopped enjoying smoking.  I did it because this horrific economy had given my business a right and through beating and I could no longer afford the habit.

I had tried quitting smoking before and really quit for about a year and a half but that was back when I was in my 40’s and working for a name else, not myself.  In January of 2009, it was painfully obvious that the coming year was going to be a major challenge financially; I started cutting back on everything I could.  When I place a pencil to it I was spending close to $75 a week on cigarettes or a monstrous $3900 a year.  Obviously this was a habit that had to go.  If nothing else, that $3900 represented a nearly two year supply of excellent Scotch!

I live in Los Angeles and the County was providing free nicotine patches to the residents in their smoking cessation campaign.  I promptly got my supply and the next morning slapped one on my arm.  Day 1 wasn’t terrible .  I expected worse.  I knew if I could get through Day 2 I had a real chance of quitting as I had scheduled myself for a group hypnosis session for Day 3.  Day 2 really sucked.  I had to get up countless times from my desk and go outside for a walk.  The urge was pretty overwhelming but I made it.

So Day 3 arrives and I place on my patch and head out to the lodge where this stop smoking hypnosis session was to be held.  The first thing I noticed about the 30 or so people who were there is they looked like losers.  They talked like losers.  Most of them dressed like losers.  Nobody demonstrated anything that came close to self confidence.  And then I realized I’m sitting here with them.  Am I a loser?  Should I look in the mirror?

And then the hypnotist turns out to make his full time living as a professional musician and only does these sessions as a contractor for the firm that puts them on.  I hope God likes the stupid because I am assured a place in heaven if he does.

So after four hours of “hypnosis”, most of which was used to sell vitamins and minerals that we will desperately need if we want the hypnosis to work, I leave the place wiser and $65 poorer.

The morning of Day 4 arrives and I place the coffee on.  It fills my kitchen with that tasty coffee perfume and my tongue screams out for a cigarette.  I resist and try to place myself into a trance like I learned at the hypnosis session.  Maybe I should have bought a bag full of those vitamins because the trance is doing squat.

I really had to go out to the garage and dig around my golf bag to find an ancient pack of cigarettes.  It had three left in it.  They were furrowed and one had a kind of yellowish stain as if it had been wet at one time.  They were wonderful .

I took my mug of coffee and one of the cigarettes out to my deck and lit up.

Israel had its Six Day War and I had mine. Israel won theirs, I lost mine.  I went and bought a carton as soon as the store opened up and started back with the habit.

And that’s the way it went for the next 8 months.

Then on one of my trips to the smoke shop, the owner surprised me because it appeared that he was smoking behind the counter.  Now maybe in some places this would be no huge thing but in California, a tobacco shop has to have one designated place to smoke and if you smoke outside of it, you risk losing your license.  I knew this guy wouldn’t risk that.

It turns out he was not “smoking” at all. It just looked like he was.  He drew on the cigarette and the tip twisted red and he exhaled smoke but then I noticed there wasn’t any ash. He was using an electronic cigarette that he just started carrying in the shop.

I had never seen one of these so this obviously led to a conversation.  It all sounded pretty clean until he mentioned the price.  The starter kit, and obviously you can’t start without the starter kit, was $150.  The first thing that went through my mind was the sales pitch for vitamins that the musician-hypnotist had made.

So I plunked down my $40 for a carton and left.

But the thought of an electronic cigarette intrigued me and I started doing some research online.  The first thing I learned was the government, specifically the FDA, is not real fond of electronic cigarettes. The Senate called for, but did not get, a ban on their sale because they were a drug delivery system.  About the same time, a whole slew of reputable organizations like the American Heart Association and The American Cancer Association and a number of Pharmaceutical companies applauded the efforts of lawmakers to prevent the sale of this new cigarette.

But that got me to wondering.

Essentially each brand of electronic cigarette consists of three parts, a rechargeable battery, an atomizer, and a cartridge that contains water and nicotine thinned with Propylene Glycol.  It’s the Propylene Glycol that the FDA is all concerned about.  They point out that Propylene Glycol is a common ingredient in antifreeze.  What they don’t point out is that they, the FDA, have already standard it for human consumption and that it exists in toothpaste, processed foods and any number of personal care harvest .

The e-cigarette doesn’t burn anything.  It only delivers nicotine in a water vapor.  How is this harmful compared to the really legal “drug delivery system” of a tobacco cigarette?

So I started thinking, there doesn’t seem to be a valid health concern, so who would gain if there was a ban on this product.  Or more to the point, who would lose if it took off in popularity like it has in the U.K.?

Huge tobacco of course would have a problem, but that means government would have a problem as well.  If sales of tobacco cigarettes were to fall substantially, so would the tax revenue from those sales.

Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture smoking cessation aids like the patch would also take a hit.

But enough about that.  The thing that I deduced from my research was this device allowed me to continue the habit of smoking without really lighting up. The need to have something in my hand while I’m on the phone, or something to drag on with my coffee is satisfied with this thing.  Yes I bought one.  And the excellent news is, once you get over the start up cost, refills cost about $2 for the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes.

So now I say I quit smoking and technically I have.  Once in a while I’ll subdue get the urge for a real cigarette but a puff or two on the e-cig puts that desire out of my mind.  I’m saving a ton of money, I don’t smell like cigarettes, I’m not inhaling the 4000 chemicals that come with tobacco and I can “light up” anywhere I please because I’m not breaking any no smoking bans.

If you are a committed smoker and you want to quit, I would suggest you give this a try.  If nothing else you can use it instead of the patch.  The cartridges come in a number of different nicotine strengths and you can step down just like the patch advertised on TV.

There is a way to quit smoking cigarettes but it’s not for everybody. Ironically it involves mimicking smoking. If you’d like to see how you can control your nicotine addiction just like the smoking patch and ease your way out of the smoking habit visit http://NoTobaccoNow.blogspot.com right now. Fight one battle at a time.

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