THE SMOKER’S TALE

 

I am 73 years old now, and in fact I am nearer to 74 than to 73, I first started smoking when I was about 10 or 11, through peer pressure, the bad lads did it so I wanted to smoke as well.

At that age it was just the odd cigarette, now and again, when and if, I had the money to get hold of some cigarettes, in which case I would get one of the older boys to buy me some cigarettes.

When I got to about 14 years old, adults used to offer me a cigarette as well, in those days a lot of adults would have had no worries about offering a 14 or 15-year-old person a cigarette.

I smoked; because I thought that it made me look big and grown-up if I smoked, and anyway, in 1952, 70% of the population smoked, and it was considered absolutely normal to smoke.

Had I been born in 1952, instead of in 1942, and known what I know now, about the health risks of smoking, I would have been less likely to have started smoking at all.

This is because as a teenager of the late 1960s and early 1970s, I might have heeded some of the warnings about smoking.

But I can assure you that the main reasons for my starting to smoke had nothing to do with the cigarette packaging having attractive designs, or attractive colors, or for that matter that cigarettes were on open display, it was just simply Peer Pressure, and nothing else.

And I fear Peer Pressure is probably one of the biggest reasons why young people still take up smoking today, in spite of all the warnings.

Another reason why I believe young people take up smoking is probably because it is very forbidden, and very frowned upon by non-smoking, or smoking adults.

I sometimes wonder if another reason could be a subconscious death wish as well, although I sincerely hope that isn’t the case.

I don’t think increasing the tax on cigarettes and tobacco, will do the slightest good, because as is happening now, people will start to buy counterfeit cigarettes, and smuggled cigarettes, much as is happening in Australia, where very high taxes are now paid on all tobacco.

I think the only way of reducing harm through smoking, is to persuade as many smokers as possible, both young and old, to take up Vaping, which is 99% less harmful than tobacco smoking.

Anyway to continue my tale, by the age of 15 I was probably smoking 5 to 10 cigarettes a day, and it was about this time, the lung cancer and smoking scare started, but like all young people I thought “oh this won’t happen to me”, and anyway by that time I was so hooked on smoking that I did not care, and just carried on smoking.

By the age of 17 I was smoking up to 10 cigarettes a day, because I was working and was earning the money to do so.

At 21 I got married, and I had to cut down on my smoking for financial reasons, but then I obtained a much better job, with plenty of overtime, and was able to smoke as much as I wanted again.

And if they had increased the tax on smoking, I would probably have started buying smuggled cigarettes.

By the age of 25, I sometimes smoked up to 15 cigarettes a day.

At age 26, I was bullied by my first wife into giving up smoking, and became a non-smoker for 2 years, but I don’t think my heart was ever in stopping smoking

Because every time, I had a really nice dream, I was always smoking a cigarette.

At age 29 my first wife and I, separated and divorced, and because of all the stress, I started smoking again, and began to really smoke heavily, and smoked up to 20 to 30 cigarettes a day.

At 45 I changed over to smoking a pipe during the day, as I had been told by my Doctor, that pipe smoking was a less dangerous smoking practice.

However at night, I had to smoke cigarillos at night, in order not to annoy my new wife, as she could not stand the smell of my pipe, even though she was quite a heavy smoker herself.

Also she got annoyed about the holes that I burnt in my clothes, through lighting my pipe, and because she said my pipe was a fire hazard.

Then, more than two years ago, thank god, I substituted Vaping for my pipe, and cigarillos, and was able to stop smoking on the same day as I started Vaping.

A lot of my friends say that the way I was able to stop smoking, on the same day that I started Vaping, is very unusual indeed, in fact almost unheard of, normally people Vape, and smoke together for a while.

A couple of months later, when I went to see my doctor on another matter, I asked him if he would put me down on my Medical Records as a non-smoker, because I had completely ceased using tobacco.

My doctor questioned me very closely about my smoking habits, and about how, I had managed to give up smoking tobacco; I told my Doctor that I was Vaping instead of smoking, and he was very surprised, about my smoking cessation, as he had long ago put me down, as an incorrigible smoker.

My Doctor was very interested in what I had to tell him, and insisted, that not only did I demonstrate my Vaping Device briefly in his presence, but more importantly he made no adverse comment about my Vaping at all, and best of all, he did put me down as a non-smoker, on my medical records.

In fact, at the end of my appointment, my doctor’s last words to me were, “and well done, with the non-smoking”!

REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

I am not one of those people that believe in making wild statements, without backing them up, unlike some of the Anti-Vaping Advocates, many of whom seem to have no qualification in Tobacco Harm Reduction.

One of the best authorities on Vaping and its effects is:

Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos.

Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos is Cardiovascular Research Fellow at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre Athens, Cardiovascular Researcher at University Hospital Gathuisberg, and researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos has stated categorically that E cigarettes are 99% safer than smoking tobacco.

Please see links.

https://plus.google.com/+KonstantinosFarsalinos/posts

With thanks to Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos.

See also.

http://vaping.com/news/exclusive-ecf-interview-dr-konstantinos-farsalinos

With thanks to Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos.

http://www.ecigarette-politics.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-nicotine.html

http://www.ecigarette-politics.com/

I have found that Vaping is a Safe and Effective Manner of Smoking Cessation.

And as it has definitely worked for me I am sure, that it would work for many other smokers.

And the fact of the matter is, that I am fed up with the lies, Half-Truths, and Distortions, and mostly Cherry Picked, Scientific Papers, propagated by some of these so called Smoking Cessation Experts.

Some of whom, (not all) are simply Astroturf for, Big Pharma and the Tobacco Companies.

I have never felt so healthy, since I started Vaping, and stopped smoking Tobacco.

All I want to do is to be the left alone to Vape, and stay healthy, so why can’t the Government leave the Vapers alone, what people do is their own business, unless it harms others.

And I have to tell you, that I have no intention of ever returning to smoking tobacco products; and I am absolutely determined to carry on Vaping, even if this means that I have to go online to China or America, or if I’m pushed to it, go to the black market.

But whatever happens I will never return to smoking, and I WILL continue Vaping.

UPDATE

Since I wrote this blog in 2012, I have considerably reduced my nicotine strength.
In 2012 I was Vaping 24 mg of Nicotine Juice, over the intervening years I have reduced the strength of the Juice I Vape to 12 mg of Nicotine.
I have no intention of giving up Vaping whatsoever, and if the EU TPD makes life difficult for me I shall simply buy my Vaping materials from China or the United States.

The EU TPD is based on flawed science, and I believe that pressure was exerted by Big Pharma Lobbying and also Lobbying by the tobacco companies.As I said before I have no intention of returning to Tobacco Smoking.