Are you a dual user?

[Anubuk]

How many of us vapers still smoke cigarettes? In regards to studies and various reports used by the FDA it would seem there are alot of us that do. Yet as I read peoples posts on here alot of them have banners stating how many cigs they haven't smoked.

I cannot say that I haven't messed up and smoked a cig the entire time since I started vaping, hell the first year I was a dual user. Currently I only vape (7 months solid) and intend to stay that way. Cigarette tobacco has alkaloids that our not present in our extracted nicotine that add to the addiction and have made it harder for some to fully quit. I totally understand that. That is part of the reason I am so vehement about not smoking for the fear of having to deal with that larger addiction. I don't want to go back to smoking.

Thing is alot of vapers say that if they remove the ease and variety of our e-cigs that they might go back to analogs. That e-cigs have helped them quit smoking, or that e-cigs are helping them quit nicotine all together. If you are going to dual use that is your choice but we can't say we are doing one thing and then go do another. Standing up on our soapboxes and claiming we use e-cigs to avoid analogs then go and use both doesn't make sense and it won't make sense to the FDA. We lose our credibility.

So I ask how many of us are dual users, not to judge but to make us think about what we say and claim to do, and what we actually do.

 

[ColJD]

I try hard to only Vape, (since late 2012).
But occasionally maybe once a month or less I will smoke, with friends, funerals etc.
However I never purchase cigs. and my smoking period is for less than an hr.
The cig addiction is still there as after a cig I have to use a lot of self control not to have another one. So I end up vaping quite heavily for sometime after.

 

[GreenEyesDon'tLie]

I'm in the dual-use camp right now, working my way back to full time vaping. I've gone back and forth a few times over the past few years, usually going to smoking because some bad circumstances forced it. And it's a slow transition back for me, I get some of the nastier symptoms from quitting if I go too fast (mostly bad panic attacks).

I don't see dual-use as the "dirty word" a lot of people do though. It's not about the cigarettes you smoke, it's about the cigarettes you don't smoke. I'm not putting nearly as much poison in my body as a full time smoker, so I still call that a victory. I don't see it being a problem with credibility when it comes to the FDA, a dual-user is still smoking less than they otherwise would be. A lot of people using the FDA-sanctioned quitting aids do the same thing, not everyone can go cold turkey.

 

[Buggainok]

I decided to use e cigarettes to stop smoking, not to cut down, or to smoke occasionally. The day I got my starter ego kit, I made the decision that I would vape, and not smoke. And that is exactly what I've done, for a little over 4 months now.

I know others do both, but I am just an all or nothing person, and knew that I had to decide one way or the other to start with. I did not see the sense in having two habits to maintain.

My feeling is that vaping is better healthwise, and also less expensive, once you get your initial start ups. I'm not looking to make this a hobby, so I'm pretty immune to buying every new thing that comes along. I just want a device that's reliable, and juice that is pleasant. And I've found both of those.

 

[stevegmu]

I can't smoke cigarettes anymore. I tried one in December and felt it in my lungs and chest the next day.

I do think those who smoke and use e-nic are the most vocal and angry over 'vaping bans' - i.e.., prohibitions on vaping where smoking is prohibited, as they seem to believe they should be able to vape anywhere, since it is not smoking. Perhaps many started vaping to do that...

 

[WillyZee]

I smoked for a couple of weeks after starting vaping ... if only just for the smell, I love being a non-smoker now

 

[renzomastiff]

I still duel. ..I went from 30 to 40 smokes a day down to an average of 5. I still enjoy a smoke. But now it's for enjoyment and not need. I may get to zero, I may not..it does not really concern me...my blood pressure has never been better and even with 5 smokes there has been a huge overall improvement. I judge no one. Vapor or smoker..live and let live & do what's right for you..

 

[CountBoredom]

I did not initially start vaping to quit smoking but it happened anyway. My intent was to save some money and smoke less. I hadn't really planned on quitting because I liked smoking. But after vaping for several weeks, cigarettes began to taste foul and I realized that one or the other had to go--I either smoked or I vaped. I finished the last cigarette in my last pack and chose not to buy any more. That was almost a month ago, so perhaps it's too early to say that I have successfully quit smoking, but the smell of others smoking (while not abhorrent to me) is not something I wish to revisit and any cravings are successfully banished by a few vapes on a higher nicotine level than my normal vape. And as far as limits on where to vape, I've always thought it polite to refrain from vaping anywhere I wouldn't have been able to smoke, if simply due to the distress caused to others by the sight of someone exhaling "something" that was not air.

 

[wheelie]

No smokes here in six months. I had no intentions of quitting when I first started vaping eight months ago. CHEERS!

 

[boomhower1820]

Evidently I'm lucky and alkaloids have no effect on me, my banner is accurate. From day one vaping worked for me. My wife is a dual user. She smokes at work and vapes the rest of time.


Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

 

[akuser47]

My last cigarette was in December 22 2013 . So Im doing great I vape to counter anxiety.

Live free, Ride free, or Die fighting for the right to do so!

 

[Anubuk]

I don't see dual-use as the "dirty word" a lot of people do though. It's not about the cigarettes you smoke, it's about the cigarettes you don't smoke. I'm not putting nearly as much poison in my body as a full time smoker, so I still call that a victory. I don't see it being a problem with credibility when it comes to the FDA, a dual-user is still smoking less than they otherwise would be. A lot of people using the FDA-sanctioned quitting aids do the same thing, not everyone can go cold turkey.

I actually do agree with this. Like I said I have struggled to let go of cigarettes and am also in the less is better than alot camp. I am trying to look at it from an outside point of view. My husband has never smoked. We have been married for 13 years, he has always hated my smoking and since we got together I have attempted to quit (did for a 1 1/2 years). I have tried all the smoking cessation products short of the prescribed inhaler. They did not work for me and minus that 1 1/2 years I still smoked whether using a product or not. I even did the patch and gum combo, something studied in the U.K. and Australia for people who had failed quitting with the patch and gum more than once.

Point being is as a non-smoker he doesn't agree with the view that less is better than alot. It is all or nothing. If I had even one or a half of a cigarette I was still a smoker regardless of my intent. If we say we have quit smoking then we should try to stick to it (mistakes happen). It is one thing to struggle and he understands that more than alot of non-smokers but if you claim to quit, quit. If you still use both, say you use both. The FDA is like one giant non smoker. Even if the less is better than more is understandable to part of them, that will not be the part that they go with. I see them using the dual user thing against us. They are the ....... non smoker (or former smoker) that throws crap in your face about smoking and acts holier than thou because they never had a problem or because they have quit (my husband doesn't act like that). They have already done such, citing our claims that it has helped us quit smoking yet pointing out that alot of us are dual users.

I see nothing wrong with someones choice to still smoke now and again and I doubt we can do anything to effect what the FDA or the public thinks about this issue. Most non smokers will not get the less is better than more thing, but it is being used against us. I feel we can lose credibility because they will pull the "well they said this but do this so it must not work at all" thing and that is not true. They only see black and white in this issue. Dual using fall in the grey area, a group that alot of them don't or won't understand.

 

[Tomthern]

I actually planned to stop smoking. Now it's been over three months and no intention of going back.

 

[distortoblotto]

I was an ex-smoker who quit for 8 years the day after losing my father to lung cancer. In spite of that fact and due to some stresses beyond my control, I found myself with a growing urge to smoke cigarettes again. After dicussing this with a great friend who gave up smoking for vaping, I decided to give it a try. I can honestly and whole heartedly say, I will never go back to the burners again.

I will also admit to owning a fairly well stocked humidor of fine cigars in which I ocasionally still enjoy with fine single malt liquors however, I find those ocassions ever increasingly to be farther and farther apart.

 

[kgevans]

I was a dual user for 2 months. On April 1, 2014 I became exclusively a vaper. I do not have any plans or desire to using tobacco again.

 

[RugerRob]

Cold turkey the day I got my first EGO Twists about 3 months ago. I'm not going back, the temptation has been there for sure and I've been offered one... When this happens I chain vape like a madman till the urge goes away... The benifits of my clear lungs and nostrils outweight my wanting a cigarette. And I'm enjoying the mods, tanks, toys, flavors and new hobby which is better and has replaced my smoking cigarettes.

 

[Double D]

OK No judgements. You want to smoke, then smoke. You want to vape, then vape. As for me, my last cig was two months ago, the day I bought my EVOD's is the last day I smoked a cig. I actually left the very last cig sitting on the counter in its box with the lighter and eventually threw it away two weeks later. I am AVID about if you want to quit then vaping is THE way to do it.

 

[CassiusCloud]

i would have my other banner on with my cigs not smoked,but every time i go to put a 2nd image in my cig i get an error saying i can only have one image there..

after my first weekend of vaping back in October with no smokes,i took 4 in with me to work..

i was already feeling more energy and everything just from my first two days of vaping..
I decided at break time to just try a smoke and could only hit about 1/4 of it..

I could feel the smoke in my lungs lingering there,my body an stomach started to ache..
i threw it down after only a 1/4 and said hell with those things..

so i smoked about 1/4 after i started vaping and that was enough to show me the difference..
Never again will i ever smoke,even if we lost vaping tomorrow,i would still never go back to those lung hogs..

 

[FireDragon1138]

I'm a dual user, not afraid to admit it- it's not easy for everyone to quit smoking, even with e-cigs (my goal wasn't to "quit" starting out, but I discovered that e-cigs are not a perfect substitute right off the bat for smoking cigarettes). I actually got into e-cigs because I wanted a hobby and they looked cool and new, the idea they were being used by people to "quit smoking" was actually a bit shocking for me to learn, as the advertisements I had seen didn't mention anything about that. I thought e-cigs were mostly used by people that were smokers that wanted a way to just forgo burning tobacco- I'm actually shocked by how many closeted-ANTZ there are among vapers.

I smoke cigs so little now I've actually started getting symptoms of quitting, like quit zits or my sinuses purging a bit of phlegm. I smoke about 2-4 cigarettes a day. Smokeless tobacco has helped get me cut down, but so has getting better e-cigs and e-liquid flavors I enjoy (I like tobacco flavors). Sticking with using WTA blended into regular e-liquid and mixing my own flavors has helped a great deal and keeps me from chain-vaping.

I have a generalized tobacco habit, though (I will smoke, vape, dip, whatever). I don't have the hand-to-mouth thing going as much as some that found vaping easy, no doubt due to that (I like the physiological effect of tobacco more than the habits around it). Cigarettes are very unique though in that if you use other forms of tobacco and you start smoking cigs, they seem to dominate to the point that's what you'll prefer unless you can't smoke or you consciously try to cut back.

I disagree that e-cigs are the way to quit for everyone- people smoke for all sorts of reasons, and it stands to reason that people will not all be able to quit using the same thing. It's true e-cigs work easily for many, but that doesn't mean there are not a significant number of people out there that struggle. I'm hoping other people who are having trouble making the switch read this and it relieves some of the pressure and shame. So much of the forum is dominated by success stories of somebody picking up an e-cig and quitting in a week or a day, it can feel odd to pick up an e-cig and not get it right away.

 

[kenbu]

I took up vaping with the intent of being a dual user, however after 7 months, I've found that smoking just leaves me feeling as if my mouth, throat and lungs have been freshly paved. For some reason or another, I'll grab a cigarette from a friend once a month, only to toss it out after 2 drags.

What I enjoy most about vaping over the myriad of other methods I've used to quit smoking is that I do not crave a cigarette nor have I become one of those annoying, militant ex-smokers. No, I don't want one of your smokes but don't mind being around those who do smoke.

Getting to that point after 30 years of smoking is to me, simply amazing.