I’ve been smoking on and off my entire life and its a crutch that is hard to get away from .  When I first discovered E-cigarettes I found them to be a strange yet different but the same as smoking .  The first E-cigarette I has was shaped like a conventional cigarette. While its compact they do have a bit of a drawback , You have to buy cartridges that are getting up there in price. When I bought those they used to be about 4 to 6 dollars per pack of 5 cartridges, Not so much anymore.  Since Reynolds purchased the Blu the prices of carts have gone higher than $14 a pack which is fucking crazy , A few years back I got my hands on a different type E-cigarette. Since the innovations of e-cigarettes have improved there is one silly yet fun side effect to the better e-cigarettes. They tend to make you look like jedi’s with light sabers.

These aren’t the cigarettes you’re looking for…

  “This was the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. More skill than simple sight was required for its use. An elegant weapon. It was a symbol as well. Anyone can use a blaster or a fusioncutter—but to use a lightsaber well was a mark of someone a cut above the ordinary.”
―Obi-Wan Kenobi

On the off chance lightsabers become a real thing , you could make some horrid mistake if you grabbed the wrong one.  The larger e-cigarettes though have many advantages, namely you do not have to deal with the cartridges. if you’re out and about with the smaller e-cig and your cart goes dry and you do have another on hand , its going to cost 15$ ,  while with the larger type you can carry a small vial or fluid to refill your E-cig at will. Also you have a much larger battery to your advantage, if you small e-cig goes dead you are stuck, with the newer ones you can just replace the battery with another one, while they are not standard batteries they do pack a punch and will last you most of the day if not more.

Another interesting area with e-cigarettes is where you can “smoke” them… You can go to a lot of places and just bust the thing out and vape away.  The rules around them are variable based on where you are. I’ve been in the middle of a  bowling alley and vaping away when the manager saw me and came over asking if i  was smoking a cigarette .  When he saw me smoking an E-cigarette he said those are OK to have inside.  Other times with the E-cig it comes down to personal preferences as far if you vape or not.

Though…. There is a stigma to E-cigarettes that both sides need to pay attention too.  From the Non-smoker end you have the jackasses , the ones that immediately start hacking a lung 40 feet away from you because they think they see “smoke” . I’ve had some jack assed people start fake coughing because I was “smoking” and it “Stunk” which Instantly made me reply to them. Yes I will be courteous to people who ask nicely but when you put on a show just to control the person around you without knowledge of what something is , Don’t go full fucktard and start running a drama display.  I’ve had to ask someone when they complained that my “cigarette” stinks “So the smell of watermelon is offensive , is cowshit appealing to you?”  Most times with e-cigarettes the sky is the limit to flavors , When you start you will stick to flavors that taste like a marlboro to you , but further down the line you will be into what ever flavors you fancy at the time and most are appealing to even a nonsmoker and do not leave horrendous smells after.   A lot of businesses are putting e-cigarette vapers with smokers, and that point while they both deliver nicotine, the smokers group is alot more stinky .

From the E-cig vapers end they are also causing some issues. if your in a non-smoking establishment and you just vaping clouds and clouds of vapor , you tend to get smokers a bit upset , but not on the surface they are wanting to smoking.  When you watch people the smoke and your vaping , You can see them wanting to light up and not to which they tend to get a little itchy over.   For me , I tend to ask if i can vape in an establishment before I just bust out the E-cig, It makes it better for all.  Other places you just want to avoid altogether vaping. Most airlines have banned the practice for a few reasons. e-liquid can contain materials that can cause allergic reactions (depending on the flavors you can run across many allergy groups). I myself have found myself in a situation accidentally.

Going back to smokers and non-smokers there is another unfortunate area to cover. Bad knowledge. Every now and than you will hear someone shout up and down that E-cigarettes are worse than regular cigarettes . these are the people that make me want to puke fire at them.  They hear some random thing on some news source and run with it . One of my favorites is “You should not be smoking that you are smoking anti-freeze.” This came out a few years back and ended up widely debunked but to a small degree true.  The problem is while part of the fact is true most it is not. Spouting out this “fact” makes you look more like an ass than trying to be knowledgeable. While Propylene Glycol (PG) Can be considered an Antifreeze, so can a bottle of rum because both have a lower freezing point than water. Also Propylene Glycol is in a lot of everyday products that the average joe does not recognize and will spout that fact any time they can just to villainize the person vaping.  In any case you can just ask the person if they have had any Cosmetics, Soaps, Toothpastes, Cleansers, Body washes, Deodorants, Hair care products, Packaged Foods, Lotions, Creams, Moisturizers, Prescription topical medicines, Moist wipes,Shampoo,Shaving gels, sodas, Coffee, Cake, dessert, and brownie mix, Prepackaged cupcakes, donuts, and pastries, Salad dressings (especially ranch), Sauces (steak, barbecue, horseradish, etc), Sour creams, whipped-toppings .  At that point you should have a pretty disgruntled person and have put them in there place.

Aside from all this.. I’ve not had a regular cigarette in many many months and I am working my way to stop vaping.  Even when I have seen doctors they generally have less of a time harassing me over smoking when they realize that I have been using an e-cigarette vs a real cigarette.