Ignorance about vaping - I need to be careful - no reference to drugs

[Alliebar]

Hmm... Seems I broke a rule with my last post because I mentioned illicit drugs.

Important enough to me to repost, with out the mention of drugs.

Twice today, someone thought I was doing drugs with my KGO. This made me pause, as I had not considered what it may look like to those that were unfamiliar with vaping. I have a responsibility to make sure that people see it for what it really is if I am vaping in public. That's all.

My hand sort of stings.

 

[lithiumdaze]

Dont sweat it... I get in trouble here all the time, just dont smoke and keep on vapeing!!!

 

[Kay1959]

Just a Noobie ooops! I hear you though....most people don't know what we're doing, so it's up to us to educate them...in a polite way of course. Welcome to ECF! Glad to have you on board!

 

[Caridwen]

Our forum rules are in place for a reason-

Why we don't allow drug talk

ECF is the global central resource for electronic cigarette information. As such, one of its main duties is to remain respectable and to present the best possible face of e-cigarette use to the outside world. Our task is therefore to assure visitors that e-cigarette use is respectable, normal and entirely legal in every way.

One of the main problems we face is a continual propaganda assault paid for by commercial rivals who will suffer as e-cigarettes become more widely used. This is a serious issue for them because the smoking-related death rate will fall dramatically, in an exact parallel with the number of smokers who convert to an e-cigarette, in any country where e-cigarettes are freely available. The obvious superiority of e-cigarettes over tobacco products, and as a better solution than trying to quit (especially with the ineffective or dangerous pharmaceutical interventions), means that e-cigs are a serious threat to the income of some major vested interests. The only way they can counter this is to use a combination of lies, propaganda and suborned officials to try and stop e-cigarettes.

One way they might succeed is to portray e-cigarettes as intrinsically undesirable, or illegal, or even as a way to use illegal drugs. To stop this taking place we need to ensure that web searches for terms associated with this type of material do not return ECF in the results, and that searches on ECF produce nothing. We should keep ECF 'clean' in order to stop them succeeding. This is why words related to these topics are automatically censored by our software.

We hope you now understand why certain subjects are not allowed on ECF.

 

[Alliebar]

It is all good. I am not upset at all. I just felt I was wrong in how I was portraying myself and had never thought about it before. I will be more careful in the future.

 

[Trollkin]

Been there as well; I carry a Lavatube around at work most days, and I see a lot of ...interesting... people. Most days I will hear at least one variant of, "What the bejeebus is THAT?" One guy asked me why I had a fuel filter attached to my cigar. And yeah, I've been asked several times about "alternate flavorings" for e-liquid. Of course, I've also been referred to as Mister Clean more times than I care to count, and one work acquaintance won't stop calling me Cypher (it's a Matrix thing). So cracks about my pv aren't a worry - and they often provide an opportunity to educate some poor, smoking sod about vaping.

 

[sailorman]

Hmm... Seems I broke a rule with my last post because I mentioned illicit drugs.

Important enough to me to repost, with out the mention of drugs.

Twice today, someone thought I was doing drugs with my KGO. This made me pause, as I had not considered what it may look like to those that were unfamiliar with Vaping. I have a responsibility to make sure that people see it for what it really is if I am vaping in public. That's all.

My hand sort of stings.

I agree. Not only that, but I'd take it a step further and say that vapers have a responsibility to vape in public and to not act like they're hiding something or doing something wrong, aka "stealth" vaping, which really should be called "sneak" vaping. If you want to be thought of as a criminal, act like a criminal would and hide what you're doing if it attracts curiosity or attention.

The only legitimate concern is the police, but 99.9% of cops know perfectly well what an e-cig is and what it looks like. They also know that the chance of you doing something illegal and openly in your car like is remote at best. A cop who pulls you over under the pretense that he saw your e-cig and thought you were doing something illegal is lying to you. As for anyone else, only the most paranoid and panic prone people should give it a second thought.

E-cigs need to be so commonly seen that no one gives them a second look. We need all the help we can get. Vape openly and publicly.

 

[Alliebar]

True Trolkin - convinced my neighbor by just allowing him to use my PV for a few minutes. Have also helped several friends at work to get started. You just want to share all the good. Those helpless feelings of trying to quit without an alternative, with only impossible will power, really are really a thing of the past. Yea for all of us!

 

[cathomp31]

Been their and heard the Wacky Comments people say when they see my e-cig..
At first when I started Vaping I pretty Much stayed Out of View from people at Work while on Break.. Now it don't bother me. Now 2 weeks ago I was Just Vaping away sitting at a Stop Light, I looked over and a Cop was Next to me, You should have seen the Look he was giving me.. He could have been amazed at the amount of Vapor I was Making, but All I could think was Crap I forgot to put the new Insurance cards in the glove box..

 

[RickMc]

Don't worry too much, Allie. The mods are understandably strict on this one for the reasons Caridwen mentioned above, but I'm sure they recognize a rookie mistake. Welcome to the forum - have fun here!

 

[DedTV]

It's not hard to explain these days since Walgreens, Walmart and other chain stores have started carrying ecigs so more people are at least aware of what they are so when you explain it and show it to people up close, it doesn't take much convincing.

But it's still going to be a long time before people see someone carrying around something like a Silver Bullet and exhaling a cloud of "smoke" and thinks "E-Cig" because people's brains have been trained for 4+ decades through things like Harold and Kumar and Cheech and Chong movies to think of something else.

 

[sailorman]

...
But it's still going to be a long time before people see someone carrying around something like a Silver Bullet and exhaling a cloud of "smoke" and thinks "E-Cig" because people's brains have been trained for 4+ decades through things like Harold and Kumar and Cheech and Chong movies to think of something else.

I doubt it. People who saw those movies know better. Nobody who saw those movies learned anything they didn't already know. They weren't documentaries. The only people who openly use them in that way are a tiny group, most of whom are fairly affluent, have prescriptions and reside in one of just a few states.

I carry around a Lavatube all the time and only once got accused of smoking a cigarette because the blue haired wench couldn't see over my shoulder. I've been asked by curious people, and most of them are intrigued. I don't try to hide it and I take the opportunity to educate them. The nice thing about the Lavatube is that if the person appeared hostile and unwilling to listen, or if I just didn't feel that explaining would be particularly productive, I would tell them the truth. It's a medical device. It delivers the medication that prevents me from ripping your throat out and climbing the walls. When I was accused of smoking by the old crone, I told her it was a medical device and she went away.

 

[leftfeild]

I don't think you can do anything about it. If that's what they think it is that's what they think it is. Half the looks might not be that they think you're doing anything, just idle curiosity.

When I started vaping in public I got stopped by the police and they wouldn't let me go for over half an hour just asking over and over if I do or sell drugs. It was an awful experience being intimidated and that put me off vaping in public. That was with an ego T and it was so clear it was an ecig and it took me like 20 seconds to explain it but they still wanted kicks out of holding me there so long.

I have a lavatube now. It's not that I'm scared of what people think, I just really do not want the hassle. The only time I do go out is to walk to work and back. I don't like to talk to people and usually have my earphones in so I'd walk right past anyone trying to ask me what it is anyway. I get enough of annoying people at work as it is I can hold off for a few minutes without vaping because the cons outweigh the pros for me. True story.

 

[tiberius_claud]

Educate, educate, educate! I get overly excited when people are curious about what I'm doing and I simply explain how it works. After the conversation, people are generally calm and some are very happy (smoking is very frowned upon here...guess anything is better than that).

 

[hairball]

I don't think you can do anything about it. If that's what they think it is that's what they think it is. Half the looks might not be that they think you're doing anything, just idle curiosity.

When I started vaping in public I got stopped by the police and they wouldn't let me go for over half an hour just asking over and over if I do or sell drugs. It was an awful experience being intimidated and that put me off vaping in public. That was with an ego T and it was so clear it was an ecig and it took me like 20 seconds to explain it but they still wanted kicks out of holding me there so long.

I have a lavatube now. It's not that I'm scared of what people think, I just really do not want the hassle. The only time I do go out is to walk to work and back. I don't like to talk to people and usually have my earphones in so I'd walk right past anyone trying to ask me what it is anyway. I get enough of annoying people at work as it is I can hold off for a few minutes without vaping because the cons outweigh the pros for me. True story.

A good reason to despise cops. I would have had someone's badge for that! And don't feed me that they had reasonable cause...they don't!

 

[VaprBecky]

Some awesome awesome people are working on a documentary about vaping called "We Are Vapers" I think it is going to be very educational and hopefully spread the word about the many positives of vaping!

 

[LeAnn]

That's why I stopped vaping a cigarette look type batt, cause it looks like I am smoking and I don't want to be associated with smoking and when people ask me about my PV I say that I am vaping, alot of people at work are switching from stinkies to vaping and I don't go to where they have to smoke anymore cause I am not smoking! We have to stand together on this issue cause the general public associates PV's with cigarettes!

 

[sailorman]

A good reason to despise cops. I would have had someone's badge for that! And don't feed me that they had reasonable cause...they don't!

You think so? Not in the U.S. you wouldn't. If they wanted to hassle you, they could detain you or make you stand there for hours while they called someone to analyze the contents of your tank or cartomizer because they "forgot" their field analysis kit. And they would claim in court or to their superiors, in the unlikely event it ever got that far, that your eyes were bloodshot and/or you were acting suspicious and/or slurring words, and all they needed was reasonable suspicion to have your juice tested. Legally, there wouldn't be a thing you could do or say about it. This is 2012, not 1970. The Burger Court is ancient history.

Fortunately for some, if you're not a minority or a male under 25, they usually have lower hanging fruit to pick.

 

[hairball]

You think so? Not in the U.S. you wouldn't. If they wanted to hassle you, they could detain you or make you stand there for hours while they called someone to analyze the contents of your tank or cartomizer because they "forgot" their field analysis kit. And they would claim in court or to their superiors, in the unlikely event it ever got that far, that your eyes were bloodshot and/or you were acting suspicious and/or slurring words, and all they needed was reasonable suspicion to have your juice tested. Legally, there wouldn't be a thing you could do or say about it. This is 2012, not 1970. The Burger Court is ancient history.

Fortunately for some, if you're not a minority or a male under 25, they usually have lower hanging fruit to pick.

I have 2 judges in the family. No they WOULD NOT detain me and keep their jobs!

 

[79Silo]

dont worry everybody makes mistake.. dont be too hard on yourself