Hey guys I live in NY and am a newer vaper (1 year smoke free come late June), and I couldn't have quit with any other method because my brain is not fooled by patches, lollipops, or other methods. I also tend to think that vaping is the answer to get people who love to say "I'd love to quit", but enjoy smoking so much that they really didn't want to quit. It has been a godsend to me, and at first my family and friends were extremely supportive of my vaping. That has changed a bit these days because they view vaping as the next thing to quit because as non smokers they don't fully understand and still see a dependence and "smoke."
This lead me to this post. I never paid attention to how I freely vape around EVERYONE. I vape at family events, home, work, stores, traffic court lol, and everywhere I go. I, and all if us need to step back and really pay attention to the negative things that we are doing to encourage outsiders from thinking that this is no better than cigarettes. Will that play a role when the government tries to shut us down or prohibit this freedom we enjoy now? Yes, it does. Instead of people being supportive of what we do to be seen as life saving, reducing second-hand smoke, less trash on the streets, and other beneficial reasons that apply to many, we instead APPEAR to the un trained eye as other things. We look like {EDIT} with our "trippy tips", mini-{EDIT} devices, huge plumes of vapor in videos on YouTube, and because everything now is viral, all it takes is a judiciary figure to pull up our vaping culture to only confuse it with drug-like sub-culture. It's obviously not drug related, nor do we parallel out vaping with {BAD THINGS}, but keep in mind just how ignorant people can be. What we do is not accepted yet in our society to average people. Consider the first time you saw two men kissing in public and your initial reaction to it. After 20 years, we can now see it and not flinch too hard. That's a long time to adjust and vaping is not nearly as shocking, however a lot of people will tie it with other forms of smoking which is not fashionable these days.
In short I'd just like to ask people to be responsible in terms of public activity so we can not attract as much negativity. I am by no means trying to scold those who may apply to the examples mentioned in the above paragraph, I just think what we often do attracts others to think the opposite of us. No need to make videos of huge clouds of vaper for the politician to use as evidence as to why e-cigs should be tied to smoking etc, no public {EDIT} hits lol, and certainly be respectful to others desires not to breathe in our vapor. Small things may help our cause and will make non-smokers sympathetic and help rally behind us because they can see it as a good thing for everyone. If that message gets across to all then it will make the politics seem not only unjust but may hurt THEIR image instead of ours.
This lead me to this post. I never paid attention to how I freely vape around EVERYONE. I vape at family events, home, work, stores, traffic court lol, and everywhere I go. I, and all if us need to step back and really pay attention to the negative things that we are doing to encourage outsiders from thinking that this is no better than cigarettes. Will that play a role when the government tries to shut us down or prohibit this freedom we enjoy now? Yes, it does. Instead of people being supportive of what we do to be seen as life saving, reducing second-hand smoke, less trash on the streets, and other beneficial reasons that apply to many, we instead APPEAR to the un trained eye as other things. We look like {EDIT} with our "trippy tips", mini-{EDIT} devices, huge plumes of vapor in videos on YouTube, and because everything now is viral, all it takes is a judiciary figure to pull up our vaping culture to only confuse it with drug-like sub-culture. It's obviously not drug related, nor do we parallel out vaping with {BAD THINGS}, but keep in mind just how ignorant people can be. What we do is not accepted yet in our society to average people. Consider the first time you saw two men kissing in public and your initial reaction to it. After 20 years, we can now see it and not flinch too hard. That's a long time to adjust and vaping is not nearly as shocking, however a lot of people will tie it with other forms of smoking which is not fashionable these days.
In short I'd just like to ask people to be responsible in terms of public activity so we can not attract as much negativity. I am by no means trying to scold those who may apply to the examples mentioned in the above paragraph, I just think what we often do attracts others to think the opposite of us. No need to make videos of huge clouds of vaper for the politician to use as evidence as to why e-cigs should be tied to smoking etc, no public {EDIT} hits lol, and certainly be respectful to others desires not to breathe in our vapor. Small things may help our cause and will make non-smokers sympathetic and help rally behind us because they can see it as a good thing for everyone. If that message gets across to all then it will make the politics seem not only unjust but may hurt THEIR image instead of ours.
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