FLOW
MY TEARS
This is a first for me.
I have thought about blogging many times but always felt there are
better people out there already doing it. However, today, I had the
pleasure of engaging a member of the medical establishment. We have
swapped tweets before but today was different. The trouble with
twitter though is the ability to write enough in a series of 140
characters. Often quite less as more people join the conversation. So
I felt driven to write this. It is not aimed at said person but I
hope he reads it and gets a little insight.
I am 59. I have smoked
since 14 but dabbled with tobacco since 9. I quit many times with
varying degrees of success. No, what am I saying. With ZERO success.
Two years ago, my daughter persuaded me to try Vaping. She had been
hinting at it for a lot longer and I knew it was working for her. She
was advocating, which meant little to me at the time, and had become
quite well known. So I relented and let her set me up with some
Vaping gear and Juices. It worked. Overnight I quit smoking and have
not looked back. I have not had one single urge to light a cigarette
since that day. I was an inveterate smoker yet for the 1st
time in the longest part of my life I didn't want to smoke. If God
had came down and spoken to me I couldn't have been more shocked.
I followed my Daughter
on Twitter and tried to get a handle on what it was she was having to
fight for. I started meeting a lot of people just like me. Surely,
no-one wanted to take away this miracle and cause so many people to
inevitably return to smoking burnt tobacco did they? Well actually,
they did and the more involved I got the more it became clear that
vested interests were at stake. People who held positions of power
and respect not only did not understand what it is like to be a
smoker and why Vaping works, but were actually dismissing people as
shills, anecdotes and astroturf. These were people like me, real
people who had found a real answer to a lifelong struggle against
tobacoo addiction. People who actually wanted to help other people
find that same escape route that we had all discovered. Yet Public
health and the Tobacco Control Industries, because make no mistake
that is what they are, were prepared to lie, produce biased, flawed
studies and then refuse to engage with the people they were damaging.
Now let me make this
clear. I KNOW Vaping works. I KNOW it is magnitudes safer than
smoking lit tobacco. I don't need to fight to save Vaping for
personal reasons. I know enough now to pretty much ensure I can Vape
for the rest of my life. NO. I am fighting to give every smoker the
chance to find what I found. To be able to help every smoker find the
right set up to Vape and never return to cigarettes. To not be
limited to ineffective equipment designed by committees that have no
clue what is required thus leading to the inevitable relapse and
return to smoking. I am fighting for peoples lives.
To members of Public
Health. I look inside me and can say without doubt, my conscience is
clear. Can you really do the same.
Could have written that myself...My story is very similar..I can't believe the switch was so easy, and you're right!..Hard to believe anyone would want to deny others the same choice!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post...You're a natural!
Cheers Steve. I hope it reflects us all. That was the intent.
DeleteExcellent. I can see where lorien gets it from. It perfectly reflects my feelings.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Mission accomplished.
DeleteFrom the heart. Much respect .
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, you have written the very words I have been meaning to put down for ages. Apart from having to find my own way at first, my story echoes yours precisely.
ReplyDelete" Dear Lord, give me strength to carry on"
Wow wonderful first blog, i enjoyed it greatly. Keep up the great work and i look forward to your next post xox
ReplyDeleteWow wonderful first blog, i enjoyed it greatly. Keep up the great work and i look forward to your next post xox
ReplyDeleteRe-reading your first post as it is just absolutely spot on. It mimics my first few months, discovering the joys of actually not smoking only to find out how under threat it was.
ReplyDeleteYou sir are wonderful, I tip my hat to you :)
Thank you everyone. I am so glad it resonated with you all.
ReplyDeleteA well written post from the heart. I am sure that you will not turn into an anti-smoking zealot. Well, I hope not because the powers-that-be in Public Health detest you. Here is what the director of the FDA in the USA had to say about ecigs:
ReplyDelete"In a press release from last month, the director of FDA's Center for Tobacco Products - Mitch Zeller - is quoted as stating:
"In today’s rapidly evolving tobacco marketplace, the surge in youth use of novel products like e-cigarettes forces us to confront the reality that the progress we have made in reducing youth cigarette smoking rates is being threatened."
Anyone who can make such a nonsensical and internally contradictory statement, and claim be an intelligent and honest 'professor' and 'public servant', is A FRAUD!!
How far back does the FRAUD go? That is the important question. There is little doubt, for example, that SHS danger is a FRAUD.
So keep on publicising your personal success. When enough people succeed by enjoying ecigs, then their testimony will cease to be 'anecdotal'.
You will never find an Anti Smoking Zealot in me. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWithout, yet, reading the article I know the author is just as oddball science junkie (meant in the good way). The Policeman's Beard *is* half constructed my friend. Vape Safe & Vape On!
ReplyDelete-Racter
And having read your epiphany I concur wholeheartedly. Your experience is shared by every vaper I've ever met who found freedom from burning tobacco through this simple, elegant, and effective piece of engineering.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have you along side Storm. Anyone who writes from the head and heart, and knows Racter's musings is a special class of crazy. With enough of us we just might make the change we need to keep this opportunity available for our still smoking brethren.
@ThaumaturgeRN
Succinct and honest, looking forward to the next one.
ReplyDelete