Hi... and please help!

[tomwatts]

Hi,

First I would like to quickly introduce myself - I am Tom, and I live here in the UK down in Exeter... At the moment I don't own an e-cigarette, and the main reason for my joining is to get a little advice on what to buy...

I know it may sound very strange, but I have never actually 'really' smoked, and I would just be e-smoking to experience - a) taste, b) what the niccotine does ??! and c) for the social aspect - a lot of my friends smoke, and the e-cigarette seems the safer way to 'join in'...

Anyway, I wondered if any of you could advise on what to buy - I'm looking to spend £20-30 (not much, I know!), and it looks like e-cig.com is my best bet. But, what should I get - a mini-ecig, an e-cigarette, an e-cigarello, a pipe or what? Iwould also ask if anyone has bought the cigar at http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10100 - just wondered what it was like?? What cartridges does it take?

Help greatly appreciated - thanks, Tom

 

[TropicalBob]

Hey Tom and welcome to our world,

There's a category on this blog for product reviews, and you'll find some good information there. I've posted my impressions of both E-Cig's e-Pipe and DealExtreme's e-cigar. The e-cigar is too new to make statements about reliability, but it appears to be a well-made product at an incredibly low price ($34, free shpping for the fully automatic model).

I do wonder about you taking up "smoking" however. Addiction to anything is not desirable. Nicotine is no different. You might be one of those people who works from the bottom up, starting with vapors and ending up with unfiltered Camels! The anti-smoking people will use you as a poster boy to outlaw these electronic delivery systems.

As for the nicotine in these: There is a tickle when the vapors hit the back of the throat, much like that experienced when using a medically-approved nicotine inhaler. It actually makes me cough sometimes. It's irritating to the throat. The throat is trying to tell me something, but I'm not listening at the moment. I get no "rush" from these, just some lightheadedness if I overdo my whole nicotine routine.

Many of the nicotine cartridges are almost tasteless. Like smoking air. No one has yet proclaimed here, "Boy, this is just like smoking a real cigarette (cigar, pipe)." It isn't. Not even close. What we're hoping is that this is a safe way to continue addiction, with some side pleasure perhaps. And that future products will be more tasty. Or else this will help us finally wean our bodies from nicotine dependency.

My initial reaction is that e-smoking is inferior to everything else I do: snus, nasal snuff, and especially the pipe tobaccos I so enjoy. But at least I can do e-smoking without my wife waving her hands at me. That counts for something. Good luck and the DealExtreme cigar is about as inexpensive a start as you can find. Personally, if I were you, I'd avoid nicotine and its addictive powers. There's a lot to lose, very little to gain by taking this up.

 

[Oliver]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for joining us and for your post.

I second everything that Bob said in his post above, and I am also a little worried about what you wrote because I'm not sure you understand the nature of nicotine and nicotine addiction.

Allow me just to list just a few problems with nicotine alone (forgetting all the other chemicals in cigarette smoke for the time being.)

1. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known to man. Some people can become hooked in a couple of days of nicotine use - a much shorter time-span than ......, ....... and amphetamines.[/*:m:35efk3ft]
2. Nicotine is a very powerful neurotoxin. Although much research has been carried out into how nicotine affects the brain, there is still a huge quantity of unknowns.
   Recent research has highlighted some disturbing possibilities, including some tests which indicate that nicotine can "rewire" parts of the brain - possibly permanently and irreversibly. In particular, the "reward" centers of the brain seem to be affected, possibly causing the user to gain less satisfaction out of life than non-smokers.[/*:m:35efk3ft]
3. The younger you start smoking the greater the impact will be - almost all the research into nicotine shows that the younger brain is especially susceptible to nicotine, and that mental illness in later life is far more likely for those who start smoking young.[/*:m:35efk3ft]
4. A nicotine addiction is for life - well for many that is - even those who have quit for years will crave from time to time - a nicotine addiction can truly dominate your life![/*:m:35efk3ft]
5. Nicotine is addictive! I know I'm repeating myself, but you must understand what is meant by addiction. When you hear people talk about their experiences quitting, you'll often find people are quite glib and humorous, especially those that have failed.
   This attitude belies the fact that for most smokers that want to quit, actually doing so is very hard, and every instance of failure can weigh very heavily on the heart indeed.
   Couple this with the fact that tobacco smoke can cause a hideous slow death, and you'll start to understand that the psychological make-up of a smoker can become very mixed up.
   So please think about how powerful a substance nicotine must be that people will continue to ingest it even as they are well aware of the consequences.[/*:m:35efk3ft]

Now, you might think that what I have written above is a bit daft coming from someone who moderates a board devoted to e-smoking.

I see e-smoking as a third-way. We are talking harm reduction here - there are many smokers who simply will never quit nicotine, and for these people e-smoking IMO is a valid option.

If I were you I wouldn't even buy a zero-nicotine e-cigarette, I would just stay clear of the habit totally. Do not feel left out by your smoker-friends.

As it happens, I think they will come to respect your ability to resist. I think back on my social group when I started smoking, and many of the characters that I remember most fondly were the non-smokers.

I understand your interest in smoking - all smokers do, implicitly - but I truly wish I had had the above information when I started, and I don't believe I would have started if I had.

Hope this helps,

SJ

PS, for further reading, do have a look at the wikipedia article on addiction, in particular the section on physical dependency.

 

[dnakr]

This is my first post, and I would like to say that I am very impressed with the responses from TropicalBob and Smokey_Joe.

I really hope that Tom will follow their advise and stay far, far away from tobacco products. Being a smoker of 30 years, I too wish I would have known what these products did.

Please Tom listen to them and any other smoker - DO NOT start something so stupid as smoking. It is not worth the risk - nor is it worth your life.

My father died a slow and painful death because of cigarettes and I pray I will be able to quit before it happens to me.

It has only been a week, but I have quit smoking cigarettes and now only e-smoke. My plan: to slowly decrease my nicotine levels so that I may quit altogether.

Tom, please do not even think about trying this, it is so not worth it...

Rachel

 

[Oliver]

Absolutely Rachel, and I'm sorry that you had to go through the pain of losing your Father due to cigarettes.

It is an astonishing thing that almost everyone has a relative/friend/loved one that has died from smoking, and yet people still do it.

I think it's a testament both to the power of the nicotine addiction and to adolescent naivety.

It's very important that we make this clear to people who visit this site the nature of nicotine, since many will be in Tom's position and thinking about taking up the habit via the e-cig. Many people just do not understand what nicotine is and what it does.

I mean, I can remember before I started smoking thinking "gosh, why on earth don't people just stop smoking. How hard can it be to not do something?" And then I started smoking, and pretty quickly I understood!

What would happen to someone like Tom if, after becoming hooked via an e-cig, the e-cig was banned? Would they have to start smoking? As you said, it's just so not worth it.

I'm glad to hear you've done your first week. Will you keep us updated and tell us more about your experiences? Especially with regard to quitting, since that is pretty uncharted territory.

Good luck and thanks for joining us,

SJ

 

[tomwatts]

Thank you all...

I really have taken on board what you have said, and I would like to thank you all for your comments; a lot to think about. I can safely say that you have, certainly at this stage, deterred me from taking up the habit. As the technology becomes more well-known, I think there will be plenty more people in the same position as myself.

I think, realistically, at some point, I will 'try' smoking, whether it be electronic or with tobacco, purely out of curiosity, but that can wait...

So, I think I'll leave it for now, but, if it's okay, still take part in the forums...?

Cheers, Tom

 

[woody]

Goodness! We certainly get an all round view here
Personally I think e-cigs would be disappointing to a non smoker, so why bother. I imagine that only those already addicted to nicotine can appreciate the more gentle and safer side of the e-cig. We can appreciate no longer coughing or not smelling terrible but still being able to"scratch the itch". I took up the e-cig after having been quit for a whole year, but only because there was a gaping hole in my life which the e-cig has filled. Having said that, I fully understood that I would re-addict myself on nicotine. How much better it would have been never to have started smoking in the first place. Those who have never smoked feel perfectly complete without tobacco. Worst still, if the e-cig gets banned I will be on nicotine gum or patches to try to wean off again.
Put it another way. Would you inject heroine just to see what you were missing? I wouldn't!

 

[esmoker]

I think in case you do not smoke, you should not start consuming nicotine, no matter whether its e-cigarette, nicotine chewing gum or other nicotine sources.

We clearly advise our customers that e-cigarette is not suitable for non smokers. The device is intended as replacement or (according to the chinese inventors) to quit smoking. However, we do not recommend e-cigarette as a device suitable to quit smoking for legal reasons.