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Yesterday I posted on Facebook my latest status in my vaping journey.
Here’s what I posted:

7 weeks smoke free on Tuesday. Thanks Stinkycanuck & Rowan WarrHunter. Down to 1ml of 18mg juice per day from 2, will drop to 12mg soon. Sense of smell has fully returned, more energy, no coughing in the morning. Increased clarity of thought processes. Gave my car a detailing last weekend to get rid of any lingering cigar smell.

I had lots of likes from friends and a couple comments so I thought for those that are interested in understanding beyond the media hype (Since that’s always geared to grab your attention and sell newspapers or tv news syndication with no regard for truth these days) I would attempt some edification.
Just in case anyone was wondering, I switched to “vaping”. This is basically using an atomizer attached to a battery to produce a vapour similar to that produced by fog machines they use at rock concerts.  The “juice” I referred to is a solution of vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG) infused with nicotine.   Food grade flavouring esters are used to make it enjoyable.  I and many other “vapers” reject the term e-cig or e-cigarette because it’s this term that has the governments and such thinking it should be regulated under the tobacco act.  This is ridiculous because firstly, this is not a tobacco product nor does it produce any second hand smoke or toxic chemicals.   It is more like the patch or a nicotine inhaler and should be regulated under the food and drug administration laws in Canada.  I say “more” like the patch but vaping is so much more.  The government is completely ignorant on the topic and needs to be educated. Vaping very closely simulates the act of smoking but without the 4000 plus chemicals.

In my opinion vaping is a risk reduction method of quitting smoking and  can be used to ween yourself off the nicotine addiction associated with smoking while eliminating the carcinogens found in cigarettes.  You don’t have to quit nicotine if you don’t want to because you can infuse the juice with nicotine and continue that way if you choose. Nicotine isn’t a carcinogen nor has it ever been linked to cancer in any way shape or form.   Smoking is the addiction, nicotine is only one component of the smoking that has been proven to have addictive properties.   There’s a lot more to a smoking addiction as many smokers can tell you.

Addiction is the continued repetition of a behavior despite adverse consequences,^[1] or a neurological impairment leading to such behaviors.^[2]

Based on that definition, in order for vaping to be considered an addiction there would have to be some adverse consequences or some neurological impairment that leads to the addictive behaviour.  I won’t be able to comment on this till I ween myself completely off nicotine and only use clear VG & PG with Flavouring.

I guess it becomes a personal choice once you quit smoking and start vaping with nicotine infused juice whether you want to remove the addictive drug or not.  I have chosen to do that over a period of time, but whether it should be done or not by other people isn’t for me to say.  Surprisingly nicotine use does have some side effects that some people consider positive benefits (as many drugs do), but I won’t get into that in this post or it will be considerably longer.

All components in the nic-juice I use are already classified by the food and drug aithorities as safe for consumption.  Nicotine is a regulated schedule F drug that is in no way linked to cancer only a drug with known addictive qualities.

The e-cigarettes that are all over the media lately are cheap versions that are being sold at corner stores etc and contain no nicotine.  The issue with those is really ensuring that there is quality control and assurance associated with the propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine and flavouring used.   Whether they should be sold to minors is more of a moral question the same as whether candy cigarettes or pipes should be sold to minors.  basically they are simply battery powered devices that you can inhale a flavoured vapour from.   Kids can buy glue right off the shelf and sniff that like crazy.   There are a variety of things that kids have access to that aren’t good for them.  I don’t let my kids drink bleach either, but that doesn’t mean that we should regulate everything down to the nth degree simply because some breeders don’t want to actually be parents to their children and want the rest of society to do it for them through regulations and government control. It’s unfortunate that so many things in our society come down to the lowest common denominator and the rest of  us have to suffer because of that.

The other issue is that there are no long term effect studies done relating to the inhalation of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine. These need to be done as well.
Vapers around the globe have bee doing this for 5+ years at least and pretty much all realize that elimination the burning substances and removing the carcinogens has to be a safer alternative. Couple that with food grade components and it’s seems like common sense to this blogger.  There are a few people that have taken lung x-rays before and after starting vaping and posted the change online as well.  From those I’ve seen it’s basically, the same change in your lungs after vaping as quitting smoking.
Vaping has turned into a major subculture for those that enjoy the act of smoking but want to eliminate the harmful health effects.   People that like gadgets seem to find a place in this subculture with like minded individuals.  I’ve seen videos of Doctor Who sonic screw driver vaping devices, light sabre toys turned into atomizers, etc., there are even steam-punk “vapers” now.     Not only have people discovered something they enjoy, they have also found a place within a group of people that are like minded.   I think beyond the obvious health benefits, the mental health benefits of “vaping” haven’t  even begun to be studied.
An interesting development is that Lorillard spent a huge chunk of capital (95 million or so) investing in the Blu-cig company in April.  Lorillard is one of the oldest Tobacco producers in the US. (Newport Cigarettes being their big seller)  That to me says they know it’s going to be big and they are hedging their bets by offering cigarettes and e-cigs.

Let’s just hope some back room deals between tobacco companies and media groups or government officials don’t put a damper on what has the potential to be the biggest smoking related discovery that could save billions of lives around the globe and provide a huge boost to the economy at the same time.