My friend’s 18-year-old son who just graduated from high school went to the ER with a bloody cough. He was diagnosed with the early stages of COPD – all from vaping. Another friend’s college-aged son was hospitalized with lung damage from vaping. Candy cigarettes anyone? Those always look fun and cool!
First, I admit I’m a slave to nicotine and smoked Marlboro Reds for 30 years. I go to doctors and get checked every year which led to a spot on my lung and I switched to Vaping. Spot is gone and I feel much better actually. My breathing is much better and I’ve exercised more and more the past 5 years of Vaping. I’m down over 100 pounds and I’m as healthy as I was when I was in my 20’s. I’m no doubt an anomaly here but vaping most likely extended my life had I not switched. Not trying to be an advocate here just stating my personal experience.
Like others here, smoked young and often, even during pregnancy. Yes I knew better, but young remember? It was a great tool -- calmed nerves, increased alertness on night shifts, and wonderful for introverts forced into public spaces, as there were always automatic friends hovering in the increasingly annoying places where it was still allowed.
It took me three serious trials to quit, finally managed it forever when I cared for two lovely older ladies dying of emphysema. NOT how I wanted to go.
For decades, I always said if I was told I had six months to live the first thing I'd do was buy a pack of cigarettes. Then one day, a good decade or two after quitting I realized it was no longer true. When vapes came out I toyed with the idea of trying it, but with wisdom/maturity/fear I chose not to. I was afraid I would again be digging into couch cushions and car nooks to find enough money to buy that one more nicotine hit.
This conversation was meant for me. I will hold on to my pack of Newports until someone pries them from my cold, dead hands (yes, I know it may be sooner than later. Spare yourself the time.) However, I encourage all others to vape.
Also, if you die of lung cancer from smoking, you're participating in the moral equalizing of the massacre of native peoples in the Americas at the hands of the Europeans. Win win!
I was at a communications firm when I had to write a piece for a e-cigarette company. Am opposed to any kind of inhalation product, so what's a girl to do? I wrote a rich column on the days of advertising restrictions in Hollywood's golden age of movies, drawing heavily from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, illustrating how sex was depicted by smoking (bypassing vile vaping altogether). I "get" smoking was sexy back in the day, in a way nothing else was.
Maybe it comes from working in medicine that the sight of a cigarette repulses me. Rather than mystery or sex - to me - it looks like a deep lack of education. It's one of those things that can never come back - hopefully - and that's a good thing for the vast majority of people who are not able to smoke socially. Sorry to be a wokescold - it's the only exception to being defiantly anti-woke.
I was a young smoker for 13 years and quit 40 years ago and never looked back. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug that does give a sense of euphoria and relaxation. Unfortunately it controls you and you end up supplying big tobacco with a steady income stream. I may miss out but I prefer my freedom. It’s all a choice.
Goddam I love smoking. I quit my full time habit a couple of years ago and now enjoy a cigarette every once in a while like Nelly and it is glorious. I also loved vaping, especially menthols. I vaped in my bed I vaped at my office. I vaped in the bathroom stall. I vaped in my car. But my cholesterol shot up to 343 that year and went down when I stopped vaping, so I am not sure vaping is as harmless as it appears to be.
I liked the end of Michael’s piece. Actually, I wish I could be friends with both of these people. They sound imperfect, hilarious and are each ridiculously terrific writers.
I'm on day 34 of quitting a pack a day habit of Marlboro Reds and thoroughly enjoyed this article and the comments! I tried switching to vape several times over the years but never got the same enjoyment out of it. I wish I could be like Nellie and have one on occasion. I still have a somewhat romantic association with smoking from my adolescent Ayn Rand obsession.
“I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind--and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression.” Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Eh. Out of curiosity tried vaping - not a smoker, so I admit it was stupid. Six months in, I had a physical. My glucose levels were noticeably higher; whereas it was always fine... I was now a few points away from pre-diabetic. So no, it isn't safe.
I have never vaped. Smoked in the high school and the Navy. Then two a day at work. Then one a week. Then none for years during Covid. I have never smoked in front of my wife or (now adult) children. But I do love one now and again and, per Nellie, I want the real thing when I indulge.
I do believe that the war on vape is a devastating and stupid public health move. They’re not equivalent in harm and that should be made clear. More harm vs less harm instead of all harm is bad.
That’s all, now I want a smoke but that’ll have to wait a few weeks until the next business trip.
My friend’s 18-year-old son who just graduated from high school went to the ER with a bloody cough. He was diagnosed with the early stages of COPD – all from vaping. Another friend’s college-aged son was hospitalized with lung damage from vaping. Candy cigarettes anyone? Those always look fun and cool!
First, I admit I’m a slave to nicotine and smoked Marlboro Reds for 30 years. I go to doctors and get checked every year which led to a spot on my lung and I switched to Vaping. Spot is gone and I feel much better actually. My breathing is much better and I’ve exercised more and more the past 5 years of Vaping. I’m down over 100 pounds and I’m as healthy as I was when I was in my 20’s. I’m no doubt an anomaly here but vaping most likely extended my life had I not switched. Not trying to be an advocate here just stating my personal experience.
I don't vape but I think it does look cool. At least when Dave Chapelle does it.
Like others here, smoked young and often, even during pregnancy. Yes I knew better, but young remember? It was a great tool -- calmed nerves, increased alertness on night shifts, and wonderful for introverts forced into public spaces, as there were always automatic friends hovering in the increasingly annoying places where it was still allowed.
It took me three serious trials to quit, finally managed it forever when I cared for two lovely older ladies dying of emphysema. NOT how I wanted to go.
For decades, I always said if I was told I had six months to live the first thing I'd do was buy a pack of cigarettes. Then one day, a good decade or two after quitting I realized it was no longer true. When vapes came out I toyed with the idea of trying it, but with wisdom/maturity/fear I chose not to. I was afraid I would again be digging into couch cushions and car nooks to find enough money to buy that one more nicotine hit.
This conversation was meant for me. I will hold on to my pack of Newports until someone pries them from my cold, dead hands (yes, I know it may be sooner than later. Spare yourself the time.) However, I encourage all others to vape.
Also, if you die of lung cancer from smoking, you're participating in the moral equalizing of the massacre of native peoples in the Americas at the hands of the Europeans. Win win!
I was at a communications firm when I had to write a piece for a e-cigarette company. Am opposed to any kind of inhalation product, so what's a girl to do? I wrote a rich column on the days of advertising restrictions in Hollywood's golden age of movies, drawing heavily from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, illustrating how sex was depicted by smoking (bypassing vile vaping altogether). I "get" smoking was sexy back in the day, in a way nothing else was.
Maybe it comes from working in medicine that the sight of a cigarette repulses me. Rather than mystery or sex - to me - it looks like a deep lack of education. It's one of those things that can never come back - hopefully - and that's a good thing for the vast majority of people who are not able to smoke socially. Sorry to be a wokescold - it's the only exception to being defiantly anti-woke.
I was a young smoker for 13 years and quit 40 years ago and never looked back. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug that does give a sense of euphoria and relaxation. Unfortunately it controls you and you end up supplying big tobacco with a steady income stream. I may miss out but I prefer my freedom. It’s all a choice.
I don't think it's possible not to look like a douchebag while vaping.
Goddam I love smoking. I quit my full time habit a couple of years ago and now enjoy a cigarette every once in a while like Nelly and it is glorious. I also loved vaping, especially menthols. I vaped in my bed I vaped at my office. I vaped in the bathroom stall. I vaped in my car. But my cholesterol shot up to 343 that year and went down when I stopped vaping, so I am not sure vaping is as harmless as it appears to be.
I liked the end of Michael’s piece. Actually, I wish I could be friends with both of these people. They sound imperfect, hilarious and are each ridiculously terrific writers.
You said it!
I'm on day 34 of quitting a pack a day habit of Marlboro Reds and thoroughly enjoyed this article and the comments! I tried switching to vape several times over the years but never got the same enjoyment out of it. I wish I could be like Nellie and have one on occasion. I still have a somewhat romantic association with smoking from my adolescent Ayn Rand obsession.
“I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind--and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression.” Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Former smoker and vaper. Team premium cigars!
Eh. Out of curiosity tried vaping - not a smoker, so I admit it was stupid. Six months in, I had a physical. My glucose levels were noticeably higher; whereas it was always fine... I was now a few points away from pre-diabetic. So no, it isn't safe.
I have never vaped. Smoked in the high school and the Navy. Then two a day at work. Then one a week. Then none for years during Covid. I have never smoked in front of my wife or (now adult) children. But I do love one now and again and, per Nellie, I want the real thing when I indulge.
I do believe that the war on vape is a devastating and stupid public health move. They’re not equivalent in harm and that should be made clear. More harm vs less harm instead of all harm is bad.
That’s all, now I want a smoke but that’ll have to wait a few weeks until the next business trip.
LOL. Guilty. Former smoker. I loved nicotine.