Are e-cigs right for me?

[Kroovy]

Ok, so this is pretty much how it goes. I'm almost 19 years old and have been smoking cigs for a year or two now. I don't think I'm considered by any means a constant smoker. I don't need cigs or nicotine. Rarely ever do I smoke a cigarette when I'm alone. I usually bust out my cancer sticks when I'm with friends or after I smoke some green.

Anyways, I've been pretty intrigued about e-cigs. I'd heard about them a while back from a friend who was thinking about buying some and I'm just now starting to hear more about them. I'm wondering, though, if e-cigs are right for me?

I can't think of the right ****ing word, but like I said, I'm not an average smoker. A pack lasts me, on average, a week or so. I don't smoke all of them either; I'm usually pretty generous about giving some away.

It's a pretty big leap to drop a few bucks on an e-cig set up but I think that it'd be cool to have something that's 1) more healthy without carcinogens, bi-products, and all that fun ****, 2) can be enjoyed anywhere, and 3) is more cost efficient when compared to normal tobacco cigarettes.

So it seems like I've almost answered my own question. My main problem is I keep seeing that e-cigs "aren't for habitual smokers" or "aren't for people that don't smoke," stuff along those lines. I don't want to try to drop tobacco cigs and pick up e-cigs, only to get hooked from them.

Anyways, I think almost anyone that's going to give me good advice understands where I'm coming from at this point in the thread and can possibly just go from here.

Thanks in advanced for advice and help!

Maximum respect,
~Kroovy

 

[chewy]

I would say no. Your going to spend $50+ getting started and this would be about 10 weeks or regular cigs. So far ive been vaping about 2 weeks and have spent about $100. Its a large initial cost, if your not a constant smoker why not just stop? I also noticed that i vape a lot more than i smoke so this could lead to you actually becoming addicted to something. I think thats why they say its not for non-smokers.

 

[VaporPhreak]

Welcome to the forum! As for whether youshould get an e-cig, most will probably say no. On the other hand if you arnt really smoking cigs for the nicotine, there are smoke juices with 0 nicotine in them. Using an ecig with that type of juice may help you out when you smoke because your friends are smoking. As there is 0 nicotine thise would helpto prevent you from getting addicted to nicotine from smoking tobacco cigs when your friends do. And as there are a huge amount of flavors it can be much tastier as well! Especially after you, as you said, "smoke some green". A good friend of mine is an AVID toker and bout an ecig for those exact reasons. He loves it. Then again, I am just playing Devil's Advocate here. The decision is yours!

 

[ozrick]

0 nicotine juice may be an option, especially since you are such an infrequent smoker. Anything to keep you away from the cancer sticks. TBH I would say if a pack lasts you a week you should just stop smoking all together if you can- especially since you are as infrequent a smoker as you are (more social than "addicted").

 

[ckc]

I'd say yes. If you have to social smoke then please get an E-Cig before you do get hooked on the analogues. Thats how i started and wish i hadn't.

 

[Surf Monkey]

I don't think I'm considered by any means a constant smoker. I don't need cigs or nicotine. Rarely ever do I smoke a cigarette when I'm alone. I usually bust out my cancer sticks when I'm with friends or after I smoke some green.

I used to say stuff like that when I was 19 too. Looking back, I wish I'd been more honest with myself. I'm not suggesting you're lying, just pointing out that I said the same stuff and believed it... but then went on to smoke for nearly 25 years.

If I were you, I'd put down analogues right now. Don't touch another one. If you want to vape, use 0 nic fluid.

 

[DaMulta]

I'd say yes. If you have to social smoke then please get an E-Cig before you do get hooked on the analogues. Thats how i started and wish i hadn't.

+1

That's how most people start off with their habit of the real killer stuff. If you start with E-Cig now you could work your way down to zero.

All tho Cig smoke will bother you to high heaven while your smoking the E-Cig, and they are all smoking anologs.

 

[DC2]

I believe this is pretty much how we all started smoking, isn't it?

On the other hand, I have been smoking for 25 years, but never in that time have I ever exceeded 10 cigarettes per day. Generally I smoke around 3-5 per day. I have one in the morning to kick start the day, and I have one during breaks at work, and of course I have lots of them when I'm drinking. Oh, and if I'm going through some stressful situation, I have quite a few, sometimes right in a row.

I think you'll find if you keep smoking that you'll find more reasons and more opportunities to smoke them, even if you're like me and don't really need the nicotine so much in general.

I bought my electronic cigarette because after 25 years I could definitely tell that even smoking as infrequently as I did, there are some health consequence starting to pile up on me. Oh, and because my wife thinks I smell like crap after smoking one.

The problem here is that we still don't know for SURE that these things are entirely healthy either, although some are already convinced, and most everyone feels comfortable saying they are certainly more healthy than smoking cancer sticks.

But still, I'm not sure we can say we know for sure how bad for you they might be.

 

[Surf Monkey]

If you start with E-Cig now you could work your way down to zero.

Honestly? I think that's bad advice. If he's going to switch to a PV and he really smokes as rarely as he says, he should go directly to 0 nic fluid. Don't fuss around with working your way down. Weening doesn't really work with nicotine. Either you're on it or you're not. The less pronounced the habit to begin with, the easier it is to stop. Therefore, his best option is to stop right now and replace with 0 nic fluid for the social aspect of it alone.

 

[Surf Monkey]

The problem here is that we still don't know for SURE that these things are entirely healthy either, although some are already convinced, and most everyone feels comfortable saying they are certainly more healthy than smoking cancer sticks.

Two quick points.

1) Even without research we can say with some certainty that PVs represent a drastically lowered risk than analogues. There's no question that the PV delivery method for nicotine is vastly safer than traditional smoking. No question whatsoever.

2) The devices when used with nicotine will never be deemed "entirely healthy" because nicotine has health consequences no matter what delivery method you use to get it. The nicotine in a PV is no different than the nicotine in a cigarette. The difference is in the additional chemicals and fine particulate from smoke that you don't get with a PV.

 

[Elendil]

If you eventually decide to use an ecig, you need to understand that it is a method the requires regular and routine maint. It is not a "grab and go" alternative.

If you go into it not understanding that some work and effort is required (even with 0 nic juice) you will have a much harder time making the transition.

 

[Ryle]

I agree with Surfmonkey and the others that suggest getting the PV with 0nic. I'm not much older than you but at your age I was a 1+ pack a day smoker (usually about 25cigs, more if I was "partying") I don't know a single smoker that didn't start as a social or rebellious thing and say "I'm not addicted, I just don't WANT to quit, I like it" its all a bunch of self delusional BS we fed ourselves inorder to deny our mutual weakness.

 

[DaMulta]

Two quick points.

1) Even without research we can say with some certainty that PVs represent a drastically lowered risk than analogues. There's no question that the PV delivery method for nicotine is vastly safer than traditional smoking. No question whatsoever.

2) The devices when used with nicotine will never be deemed "entirely healthy" because nicotine has health consequences no matter what delivery method you use to get it. The nicotine in a PV is no different than the nicotine in a cigarette. The difference is in the additional chemicals and fine particulate from smoke that you don't get with a PV.

Like?

Nicotine has shown to slow down the affects in Alzheimer, and Parkinson also it kindda shows in studies to be affective with slowing down to stopping ulcerative colitis, Tourette's Sydrome, rheumatoid and colorectal canecer. On top of that it helps people that have ADHD.[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]


Link
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"In human studies, reported performance improvements with post-trial administration of nicotine have all involved associated learning (Mangan and Golding l883; Colrain et al, l992; Warburton et al, l992).... Nicotine improves performance by increasing the attentional resources available for such strategic processing," [Rusted JM, et al, "Facilitation of memory by post-trial administration of nicotine: evidence for attentional explanation," Psychopharmacology, 108(4):452-5, l992].[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"1. Nicotine improves attention in a wide variety of tasks in healthy volunteers. 2. Nicotine improves immediate and longer-term memory in healthy volunteers. 3. Nicotine improves attention in patients with probable Alzheimer's Disease," [Warburton D M, "Nicotine as a cognitive enhancer," Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 16(2): 181-91, Mar l992][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"Researchers observed lessening of tic frequency and severity 3 minutes after subjects chewed [nicotine] gum, even more so at 10 minutes." [Rickards E H, "Nicotine gum in Tourette's disorder," American Journal of Psychiatry, 149(3):417, Mar l992. Note: the subjects were all children with Tourette's disorder].[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"In humans, nicotine-induced improvement of rapid information processing is particularly well documented.... Preliminary studies have found that some aspects of the cognitive deficit in Alzheimer's disease can be attenuated by nicotine." [Levin E D, "Nicotinic systems and cognitive function," Psychopharmacology, 108(4):417-31, l992][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"Improvement in attention, learning, reaction time, and problem solving have been reported.... Different processes, including attention, stimulus evaluation, and response selection, appear to be involved in the effect of nicotine on human information processing." [Le Houezec J, Benowitz N L, "Basic and clinical psychopharmacology of nicotine," Clinics in Chest Medicine, 12(4):681-99, Dec l991].[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"Despite the absence of change in memory functioning, these results demonstrate that DAT [Alzheimer's disease] patients have significant perceptual and visual attentional deficits which are improved by nicotine administration." [Jones G M, Sahakian B J, et al, "Effects of acute subcutaneous nicotine on attention, information processing and short-term memory in Alzheimer's disease," Psychopharmacology, 108(4):485-94, l992].[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"When you look at people who smoke, and people who don't smoke...you find those who smoke cigarettes are about half as likely to get Parkinson's disease." [Dr. David Morens of the University of Hawaii School of Public Health as quoted in "Stunned docs discover cigarettes stop Parkinson's," by Roger Field, New York Post, 6/15/95. Dr. Morens and colleagues examined 34 studies on smoking and Parkinson's. Their study was published in the June, l995 issue of Neurology].[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]According to a study conducted at Surrey University and published in the journal Psychopharmacology, smokers are more mentally alert at night than non-smokers. Rosemary Brook, spokeswoman for Surrey University's psychopharmacology unit, said, "The results showed that smokers were subsequently able to perform various tests of reaction, memory recall and other related tasks consistently better than the non-smokers," [Reported on the BBC News, 4/8/98, "Cigarettes 'keep you sharp after dark'."[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]In a presentation at the 151st annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (June 8, l998 in Toronto), Dr. Paul Newhouse of the University of Vermont reported on his research on treating Parkinson's disease with nicotine. "Preliminary analysis shows improvements after acute nicotine administration in several areas of cognitive performance." These areas included reaction time and central processing speed. The researchers also reported that after chronic use of nicotine on Parkinson's patients, motor function and the ability to move also improved. [Reported by Reuters, 6/8/98, "Nicotine patch promising for Parkinson's"]. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1] "The influence of smoking on the risk of developing ulcerative colitis is well documented. Compared with lifetime nonsmokers, the risk is reduced in smokers...." [Tysk C, Jarnerot G, "Has smoking changed the epidemiology of ulcerative colitis?" Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 27(6):508-12, Jun l992].[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"When association between cigarette smoking and UC [ulcerative colitis] are examined, never-smokers are approximately three times more likely to develop UC than smokers. A consistent finding from study to study is that quitters have a mildly increased risk of developing UC which suggests that cigarette smoking may have a protective effect," [Lashner B A, "Inflammatory bowel disease: family patterns and risk factors," Comprehensive Therapy, 18(8):2-4, Aug l992].[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica][SIZE=-1]"It is beyond doubt that smokers are protected against ulcerative colitis, and the more that is smoked the greater the protection--so those on 25 cigarettes a day or more have a risk as little as one-tenth that of non-smokers," (Dr. Martin Osbourne, surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in London, as quoted in the Daily Telegraph, 9/7/93). [/SIZE][/FONT]

Vapping on the E-Cig could be better than not vapping on one at all.....

 

[PatriciafromCO]

can say it was the same for me for being a slow process starting at 15 years old and not really needing an anolog, a pack could last me a month then,, but the habit/additction eventually gets you no matter how slow the process 20-23 years old, was a cross road period of never being able to turn back. Agree there is going to be start up cost, supply cost.. And I would start off at 0 mg nic it would be my first choice if it were me just starting down that road again... May Dad was a smoker and he never told me how tourtured he was for smoking, he didn't think he had a right to tell me not to smoke when he smoked himself.. As an adult now,I understand where he was coming from, but I truly wish he had told me how tourtured he was, it would of made a difference for me then. So I am saying it here,, if you don't have to go down the path of analogs I say run,, run like hell in the other direction....

 

[maryjo]

If that is all you smoke why don't you just quit? Doesn't make sense to spend more money to start a habit the replace something that is obviously not an addiction.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Like?

It has an impact on the cardiovascular system. It raises blood pressure, constricts blood vessels and so forth. Look it up. There's ample research available.

Vapping on the E-Cig could be better than not vapping on one at all.....

Highly doubtful.

 

[Kroovy]

I'm glad this forum is set up to what I'm used to so I can do multi-quotes 'n such. Here we go:

If you eventually decide to use an ecig, you need to understand that it is a method the requires regular and routine maint. It is not a "grab and go" alternative.

If you go into it not understanding that some work and effort is required (even with 0 nic juice) you will have a much harder time making the transition.

Try having to clean resin from a tree percolator, an inline diffuser/inline percolator, and a $200 tube. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up online. Not sure about forum rules here

I agree with Surfmonkey and the others that suggest getting the PV with 0nic. I'm not much older than you but at your age I was a 1+ pack a day smoker (usually about 25cigs, more if I was "partying") I don't know a single smoker that didn't start as a social or rebellious thing and say "I'm not addicted, I just don't WANT to quit, I like it" its all a bunch of self delusional BS we fed ourselves inorder to deny our mutual weakness.

I think that you guys have the wrong impression. The best way to describe it is that I choose cigarettes, they don't choose me. It's pretty easy to sit here and say that I don't have an addictive personality, that I have a strong will, that I won't get addicted to cigs. But honestly, I don't like the feeling of smoking cigarettes without marijuana. Yea, I'll be honest. If I smoke when I'm driving, I feel... I guess the best way to describe it is out of place. It just feels weird to sit around, sober, and smoke a cig. There's no real point. When I used to dip during wresting, I got a nice head buzz and body buzz, and that's why I enjoyed dip. When I smoked my first cigs, I got a crazy head/body buzz, and that's why I liked cigs standalone. But now they don't do anything for me, save to enhance my high.

If that is all you smoke why don't you just quit? Doesn't make sense to spend more money to start a habit the replace something that is obviously not an addiction.

Because I don't feel that I need to quit. I have a little extra money, I decide I want to puff some cigs when I'm hangin' with my friends 'n such, so I go buy a pack of whatever's cheapest, usually menthol, and I'm happy for a few nights. I'm just as happy without cigs.

The reason for posting this thread was to figure out if e-cigarettes are right for me, given the advise of people that have experience as smokers (which I've gotten) and vapers (which I've gotten).

I think that, for my situation, I'm going to go down the path of how weed is. You .... that **** up when you're young, and you vape that **** down when you're old (however, if I could manage to aquire a Volcano vape, I'd definitely use that 24/7).

Thanks for all your help guys! I really appreciate it!

Maximum respect,
~Kroovy

 

[DC2]

I think that you guys have the wrong impression. The best way to describe it is that I choose cigarettes, they don't choose me. It's pretty easy to sit here and say that I don't have an addictive personality, that I have a strong will, that I won't get addicted to cigs. But honestly, I don't like the feeling of smoking cigarettes without marijuana. Yea, I'll be honest. If I smoke when I'm driving, I feel... I guess the best way to describe it is out of place. It just feels weird to sit around, sober, and smoke a cig. There's no real point. When I used to dip during wresting, I got a nice head buzz and body buzz, and that's why I enjoyed dip. When I smoked my first cigs, I got a crazy head/body buzz, and that's why I liked cigs standalone. But now they don't do anything for me, save to enhance my high.

You didn't give me the wrong impression.
In fact you just gave the perfect description of me when I was your age.

 

[Surf Monkey]

I choose cigarettes, they don't choose me.

I know you think that. I thought that too. All of us did.

My story is exactly like yours. I started off having maybe one or two smokes a week. That lasted for a couple years. Then I ramped up to one or two a day. that also lasted for a couple years... and so forth and so on until I was up to a pack a day.

Seriously, don't let your rationalizations masquerade as truth. If you're taking nicotine with any regularity then you're forming a dependence on it. You may think you're stronger than the drug, but you're not. No one is. It's simple chemistry.

So, the advice is simple. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke (you obviously do) then quit. But if you choose not to quit, don't blow a bunch of smoke up our rear ends about how you control the drug and how you can quit whenever you want. That's just standard addictive thinking. Either own your habit or abandon it.

The only reason you should be considering a PV is if you want to socialize with your friends and "smoke" while not taking in any nicotine. If you're planning on using nicotine with the device, don't. Just quit smoking. All a nicotine loaded PV is going to do is give you an excuse to take more of the drug because the health risk is lower.

Believe me. Most of us here wish we could go back to where you are now and do it all over again. Job #1 would be quitting while the addiction was still mild.

 

[chrisl317]

30+ year smoker, chewer and snuff dipper here with a touch of emphysema. For you, I'd say stop smoking right now. Don't consider alternatives, just stop. You haven't been a smoker long enough to go to bed at night and feel like you've got a couple of paper bags for lungs yet. Chew bubble gum, have sex, but do anything as a substitute instead of smoking. Not being hypocritical, if I'd have known better I'd have never started. BTW, I grew up with cigarette commercials on TV. You can take Salem out of the country, but, you can't take the country out of Salem!