Boy, Talk about way off from my usual stuff, but I had to tell everyone I can that smokes how I crushed my cigarette habit instantly and without any pain or mental stress.

First off, I should not take the credit for this, but a new, and controversial product has hit the market that I believe will, if allowed to, break the tobacco companies and send them straight down the tubes if word on this product ever really gets a fair shake and a chance to go main stream.

Next I should tell everyone about the bondage I have been in for over 25 years of my life. As I tell this story, anyone who smoked cigarettes for over a few years can testify that it is almost impossible to quit smoking, no matter what you try because only part of the problem is addressed by what is "acceptable" in the main stream of society and the media.

I started smoking at the age of 14, because the neighbor's kid smoked and I thought he was cool. He was a couple of years older than myself and had the drivers license, car, status and all of the "other" things that go into that age that he was in, including smoking, but I was still young, but he allowed me to pal around with him, and in no time, I was also smoking. Please do not misunderstand. I am not blaming him, as I am sure he did not know what he was doing either.

After about 8 years I was starting to feel the effects of them on my life, so I tried to quit on my own, that lasted all of about 3 days, and then I was lighting up again. From then on I was on a quest to quit the terrible habit to no avail.

I tried everything, Hypnosis, gum, inhalers, patches, you name it, I tried it, but after a couple days on average, I broke down and fired one up again and fell right back into the vicious cycle of failure, so about 10 years ago, I just gave up and was resolved to spend the rest of my life as a smoker. Kind of like a marriage, till death do us part! What a way to go through life, as a defeated soul in bondage for the need of setting a plant on fire and destroying my life with it's toxic fumes.

Then the Miracle happened. I was at the mall with my better half and we ran across this guy that was running a kiosk that had this "e-cigarette" ( link to where I bought mine at bottom of my story). Now this may sound crazy, and no, it is not an online cigarette, but an electric cigarette. The guy working the place told me it has a rechargeable battery, and atomizer, a cartridge with liquid nicotine and looks and feels like a regular cigarette, it even taste like a real cigarette. But it is nothing but a water vapor with nicotine. So there is no real smoke, just a water vapor that dissipates fast and leaves no odor, does not make you or the people around you smell like an ashtray, and has no deadly second hand smoke.

I found this hard to believe, so he gave a demonstration with one. I wanted to buy one on the spot, but the wife was a little harder to sell on it than I was, so I left disappointed, but determined to look up more information on it online and do some in-depth research to see if what he told me was true. The product seemed great because the biggest part of quitting for me was losing the taste, the nicotine, and the act of seeing and feeling it as I inhaled and then exhale. Or simply, just the physical crutch of the cigarette. This means I could get rid of the 4000 poisons of regular cigarettes for a vapor that all of the ingredients are on the FDA approved list and all are under the safe zone listed by the FDA as safe for nicotine as far as parts per million.

I did find some negative info, which I will cover later in this post. But I was then feeling pretty safe about the product so I talked my wife into buying one online (much cheaper online), and seeing what they were all about.

We ran across this e-cigarette site and shopped around, decided on a starter kit and ordered it. I was beside myself for over 3 days waiting for it to arrive. I wanted to quit smoking so bad that I was almost a basket case and just knew in my heart that this was the answer I had been looking for so long.

It arrived and I nearly tore the box up opening it ( yes, I really was that excited!). I took it out and read the directions with shaking hands I was so excited. After finally getting it charged and put together, I started using it immediately. The next 3 days I did not even think of lighting a real cigarette up, until I ran out of cartridges. I went another 4 days waiting on replacements (which are less then half the cost of tobacco cigarettes). I smoked regular cigarettes during the wait on the liquid refills and new cartridges, but as soon as they arrived, the tobacco went into the garbage. It has been over a month now, and I have yet to smoke another "analog" cigarette.

This is not the end of the story, now for the negative. You may not believe this, but the world health organization and the food and drug admin are doing a full frontal assault with negative PR campaign's to try to outlaw these miracles. They are using a tatic that unless you pay attention, it will make you believe they are really worried about the end user. Phrases like: "There is no supporting evidence to prove they are safe." But my take on that wording is that there is no supporting evidence that makes them dangerous. I feel better, can breath again, am putting about 3,987 less chemicals into my body that are known carcinogens, plus the last 13 are already present in tobacco cigarettes in much higher concentrations.

Even the mayo clinic states that the nicotine is addictive, but not the danger of cigarettes. Here is what they say, "While it's the nicotine in tobacco that keeps you hooked, the toxic effects come mainly from other substances in tobacco. Smokers have significantly higher rates of heart disease, stroke and cancer."

So, what is the motive for banning or trying to ban them? I believe that the big tobacco lobbyist and politicians are pressuring the FDA to crack down on them for lost revenues. State tobacco tax collections for 2007 totaled $15,262,111,000 in the 50 states (not counting DC or local government) That is 15.2 BILLION. That is just the states take on the deal. Can you even fathom what the Federal Government makes?.

These guys do not care about the smoker who wants to quit killing their selves, they care about money, not lives. They want to end this quickly because they know if just 25% of smokers find out about this, they lose billions in tax revenue due to the much lower cost the e cigarettes.

You can pretty much bet your bottom dollar they are upset and their ears are buzzing from the lobbyist from the tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical companies who sell that useless patch and gums that are supposed to help people quit.

The good news for me is that I have lowered my nicotine intake to almost nothing and will be able to use the cartridges with no nicotine soon, so any ban on the cartridges with nicotine will not affect me soon.

If you smoke, or have a loved on that smokes, you need to get them to try these while there is still time before the greedy politicians put an end to this very effective and safe way to quit smoking.

And before anyone asks, I am not affiliated with the people who make or sell them, though I would not mind it. I will preach it from the rooftops because it was so easy for me to become a non-smoker with this great and much needed product.

Here is the link I promised : e-cigarettes

They had the cheapest online and some other fancy and expensive ones. I opted for the cheaper to start, once I wear mine out, I will buy a better quality set from them.