I Used to be Young...

Ive been doing the vape thing the last few years.
NOt perfect I know but less harmful than inhaling burning plant matter and the extra chemicals, or so I am told.

I smoked as an mid to older teenager and gave it up for over 20 years.
Pressures of responsibilities I suppose; took a few drags here and there off my wifes and started again some years ago.
Quit again for 5 solid years; went back somewhat and then switched to the vape.
 
jtcnj said:
Ive been doing the vape thing the last few years.
NOt perfect I know but less harmful than inhaling burning plant matter and the extra chemicals, or so I am told.

I smoked as an mid to older teenager and gave it up for over 20 years.
Pressures of responsibilities I suppose; took a few drags here and there off my wifes and started again some years ago.
Quit again for 5 solid years; went back somewhat and then switched to the vape.
Click to expand...
I had considered going this route before, but my lovely state has decided to straight up BAN all flavored e-juices...so that kinda sucks. I never even got to try any of them.

My lovely state also decided to (w/o a vote) raise the legal age for tobacco purchases up to 21, ... so I guess we can send young people to war, should they choose to enlist, but we don't think they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they want to use tobacco or not? I suppose this probably lies on the border of becoming what could be considered a political rant....so I think I'll leave it alone lol

Still kinda interested in trying to quit smoking via the vape route though.
 
Vaping reduces or negates a lot of the other smoking risk factors, though I dont believe it is a "safe" practice or without risk.
I hope to eventually give it up.
But in the meantime the nicotine crutch helps me not focus on body count.
This is a metaphor.

Funny you mentioned public policy; when writing that last post i typed and deleted a rant about NJ policy, recent vape 10% F.U. tax, and other tax type stuff.
We also have a flavor ban, instead of enforcing the existing laws that minors cant buy the stuff to begin with.
I use a mild "tobacco" flavor but it doesnt taste like cigarettes.
I dont want it to, or I'm not that particular.
I'm not into the whole massive vape cloud hobby, another "cool" factor attracting the young.
 
jtcnj said:
Vaping reduces or negates a lot of the other smoking risk factors, though I dont believe it is a "safe" practice or without risk.
I hope to eventually give it up.
But in the meantime the nicotine crutch helps me not focus on body count.
This is a metaphor.

Funny you mentioned public policy; when writing that last post i typed and deleted a rant about NJ policy, recent vape 10% F.U. tax, and other tax type stuff.
We also have a flavor ban, instead of enforcing the existing laws that minors cant buy the stuff to begin with.
I use a mild "tobacco" flavor but it doesnt taste like cigarettes.
I dont want it to, or I'm not that particular.
I'm not into the whole massive vape cloud hobby, another "cool" factor attracting the young.
Click to expand...
That and I don’t want to trade one habit for another
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
That and I don’t want to trade one habit for another
Click to expand...
The first time I quit smoking, I found Copenhagen long cut to be my friend.

Still a bad habit for sure, but at least I could breathe, and I wasn't always coughing.

I'm not sure I could go without nicotine in some form. It's been part of my life, at this point, longer than it hasn't been...

I don't know how to function without it.
 
mcblink said:
The first time I quit smoking, I found Copenhagen long cut to be my friend.

Still a bad habit for sure, but at least I could breathe, and I wasn't always coughing.

I'm not sure I could go without nicotine in some form. It's been part of my life, at this point, longer than it hasn't been...

I don't know how to function without it.
Click to expand...
I tried the same approach, and it only made want to light up afterwards
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
That and I don’t want to trade one habit for another
Click to expand...

Let's keep in mind that the information about vaping being "safer" than cigarettes is coming from the vaping industry, a lot of which has ties to the tobacco industry. I wouldn't (and don't) believe a word of what they say without independent medical testing to indicate it is in any way "safer" and that it is not in some ways more harmful. The evidence is certainly building against vaping and there is no science that adults are in any way inoculated from the same kind of long-term negative effects brought by tobacco. Inhaling anything other than air is, simply, inherently unsafe and will damage your health.

I smoked in my early gigging days, mostly out of boredom and the fact that pretty much everyone around me, like, all my bandmates, were smoking. I wish I had never done it but the past is the past. In real time, the practice kind of disgusted me - messy, smelly, occasional coughing and throat pain. One day I had just had enough (particularly of me and my stuff smelling horrible all the time) and said never again, and that was that. It's been about 23/24 years since my last cigarette.

The smell of cigarette smoke now turns my stomach. It's a good response to have. And, mercifully, I live in a city where it is illegal to smoke in any public space, including sidewalks. Smokers are limited to private property and their cars.
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
I tried the same approach, and it only made want to light up afterwards
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Ah yes....it did for me too. At first.
What I ended up doing- and this isn't legal everywhere yet- was when I felt like smoking, I would grab my little pipe and take just a couple tokes.....just enough to get the smoke in the throat and lungs a bit, but not enough to get baked...soothe that particular craving...and then I'd pop in a fat dip. So, I would get that satisfying "throat hit" feel, immediately followed by a dose of Copenhagen, and that would keep me from lighting up a cig.

Yeah, probably not the best plan, but it got me off the ciggies for a few years. A couple tokes here and there vs 2 packs a day? Was easy for me to see which was far less harmful lol
 
gball said:
Let's keep in mind that the information about vaping being "safer" than cigarettes is coming from the vaping industry, a lot of which has ties to the tobacco industry. I wouldn't (and don't) believe a word of what they say without independent medical testing to indicate it is in any way "safer" and that it is not in some ways more harmful. The evidence is certainly building against vaping and there is no science that adults are in any way inoculated from the same kind of long-term negative effects brought by tobacco. Inhaling anything other than air is, simply, inherently unsafe and will damage your health.

I smoked in my early gigging days, mostly out of boredom and the fact that pretty much everyone around me, like, all my bandmates, were smoking. I wish I had never done it but the past is the past. In real time, the practice kind of disgusted me - messy, smelly, occasional coughing and throat pain. One day I had just had enough (particularly of me and my stuff smelling horrible all the time) and said never again, and that was that. It's been about 23/24 years since my last cigarette.

The smell of cigarette smoke now turns my stomach. It's a good response to have. And, mercifully, I live in a city where it is illegal to smoke in any public space, including sidewalks. Smokers are limited to private property and their cars.
Click to expand...
That's actually one of the reasons I didn't initially want to try anything vape. It was still new enough that how can anyone really know if it's "better/less-harmful" when it's still a relatively new thing? Now, with "popcorn lung" becoming a side effect, it is becoming increasingly clear that it indeed does come with significant risks.
 
JohnnyGoo said:
Copenhagen long cut yum. I chewed that for 10 years to quit smoking. been 20 years since i quit smoking. havnt had a one.been 10 years since quiting Cope.
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Congrats goo.
Monumental task. Some people seem to have a bit of an easier time with it, as opposed to people like my aunt who refused to quit and died a horrible death at 55.

It certainly isn't an easy thing to do, you have to really want it.
 
I used Copenhagen, several Skoal varieties and Kodiak for 20 years. I found the Nicorette gum worked fantastic for me. I just completely switched to the gum and used as much as I needed at first. Every couple of weeks I would cut down by a piece a day. 6 months later done. I would still want tobacco if I was around it for about 2 years, but I behaved. Been going on 14 years now.
 
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