As far as your last comment goes, I would hardly call that "capable", much less praise someone for it.
I could backslide and smoke a few cigarettes if I wanted to throw the last three years of effort down the drain. So could a lot of us under the right circumstances but I don't know anyone who would consider that a victory in any sense of the word.
That's an example of bass ackwards thinking at its worst IMO....and it certainly explains some of the comments I've read on this thread.
I'll speak to this.
Please keep in mind that I've gone cold turkey (from smoking) 8.5 years, another time for 2 years and a third time for 1.5 years. The 8.5 years is a very long time, or more years than every vaper who is now an ex-smoker has abstained. Perhaps in a year or two, I'll no longer be able to make that point.
My cold turkey experiences give me a very acute sense of what it is like to be liberated from all the troubles that smoking can have on a user. In my opinion, going cold turkey and being liberated is arguably better than not smoking from an NRT approach. But that's my opinion, and am trying to really speak to the feeling of liberation and "money saved" aspect that I routinely hear vapers (who are ex-smokers) tout.
I also have experience with backsliding, as my first point notes that I've gone cold turkey 3 times. During the 8.5 year experience, there were years (not just weeks and months) where I viewed myself as non-smoker that had zero cravings and no desire to go back. That I did go back tells me, even on hindsight, nothing about the power of nicotine or addiction, but everything with power of choice. My first 5 to 15 cigs after 8.5 year break were between teeny tiny amount of enjoyment and wow, is this just nasty. But once it got to 15, the taste was reacquired. Once the taste was reacquired, the cravings got stronger. Once the cravings were strong enough, I was back to PAD (or more) smoking habit.
Part of me really wants to elaborate on the taste factor with smoking that I'm certain every (ex)smoker gets, but I'd rather not go there with this crowd as I'm sure most think of it as plain nasty and don't wish to entertain how (absolutely) wonderful that taste actually is.
Each time I back slid, I took between 2 and 7 days to become a PAD smoker. So, in my reality and in the reality of around 99% of the people I knew of as smokers, I never experienced and only slightly understood how smoking could be had in moderation. How moderation looks exactly in all cases for all people is perhaps impossible to convey, but for a smoker that knows the craving, I would say just imagine being able to enjoy smoking without craving a smoke, ever. Someone could've said that to me 5 to 30 years ago and I would've understood the words, but thought it impossible to be at that point.
Now, I am at that point and have been for at least a year, if not more. For most of 2015, I've been a PAM smoker (pack a month). There have been a few times (among the few packs that I've purchased in 2015) where I was down to 1 or 2 left in a pack and someone somewhere that I was with wanted to bum a smoke, and I willingly gave my last one to them, without caring when I might get another pack. To me, that's liberation.
I could, by now, very easily walk away from smoking for good. I don't need to smoke, don't have cravings for a smoke, and don't see smoking, even in moderation, as a healthy thing for me to be doing. But I do enjoy smoking and I very much like smoking in moderation. I like being on the train I am on, and like knowing that smoking doesn't control me. I really do wish this for everyone that has at any point claimed to enjoy smoking in their life, but realize the whole liberation factor from smoking (at all) is a stronger urge than using in moderation.
What I still don't fully get, and perhaps never will via intellectual discussion is why other smokers aren't able to see how super duper easy smoking in moderation is, due to the existence of vaping products, and vaping experiences (i.e. can pretty much vape everywhere indoors, but can not smoke almost anywhere indoors). I do think if I stopped vaping for say a week and continued to smoke, that I would be back to PAD smoking for as long as I am not vaping. But because vaping does exist and is right now incredibly easy to access and to do almost everywhere, then it is very hard for me to understand why any vaper/ex-smoker would deem moderate smoking as something that is unique to me. At the very least, I know most of you all acknowledge that if you were to smoke again, you'd plausibly be able to cease smoking if you devoted yourself to full time vaping. You've already demonstrated that once to yourself, and unless you are lying to yourself, I'm sure you could do that again. That you don't trust yourself to handle moderate smoking is another matter, and one for you to be final judge on what makes most sense for you. Personally, I have faith that you could, easily, handle moderate smoking. But I truly do get what it's like to be ex-smoker and sense of liberation that comes with that.
I do see all this as relevant to this thread, because even moderate smoking is clearly met with trepidation in our society. I can't think of any other common substance where that is the case. Moderate drinking of alcohol is widely accepted as being very okay, even while alcohol is clearly a toxin. Drinking soda or coffee in moderation will likely not register on the radar for any person who has friends and family. But being a moderate smoker, that will openly smoke whenever / wherever, would register and is treated as, "wow, you have that problem still. I feel sorry for you."
And all that stems from the nicotine stigmatization / brain washing that is so far overboard, it needs to be challenged. Vaping nicotine itself challenges it, and if never smokers desire to vape nicotine, by golly, it's going to fly in the face of those who have their own personal hangups with nicotine users. IMO, the world needs some of that right now, and the more the merrier. A moderate smoker, such as myself - who will not kowtow to those who are zealots of the anti-nicotine variety, or even anti-smoking variety - is going to fly in the face of what is ingrained in the social order. Sometimes I think I still smoke, in moderation, just so I don't lose touch with what is truly at stake politically going forward. Most of the time, I realize I moderately smoke because I simply enjoy smoking.
If you can't see the connection in what I'm up to via moderate smoking and thread like this, that's okay. I can, and won't be shy about voicing my position. Thanks for reading this wall of text and what I call the short, polite version for addressing those who have their own personal hangups around anyone that dares to use nicotine, via vaping, but has never ever smoked.
