Started smoking at 16 because I fell for a European girl. I got out of control quickly and was up to a pack a day in a matter of months. I always thought vaping was stupid and was a way for kids to try and look cool. My girlfriend, who also smoked, has asthma. One night she had a major asthma attack and I couldn’t keep watching her smoke cigarettes because I knew that would only make things worse. We both bought cigalike vapes and began the transition. After a few months of vaping, her symptoms of asthma were lighter than they’d been in her entire life (even before she started smoking). We’ve been vaping for over a year now and I can feel the difference. I believe that switching to vaping not only helped us off cigarettes, but helped restore her respiratory system to what it would have been if she hadn’t smoked cigarettes for two years. Today, I don’t like the smell of cigarettes and I try to get the smokers I care about to make the switch. While I don’t recommend vaping to teenagers who don’t smoke, I know there’s no better way to get young people who would otherwise be smoking cigarettes off of them than to switch them over to a vape. It gives you everything you like about smoking.
As a younger former smoker who switched to vaping, I can only hope that the government does not continue to impose restrictions on the sale of vaping products. I know that if that happens I will likely return to cigarettes, as will my girlfriend. As far as I’m concerned, vaping has helped keep me from a lifetime of a very dangerous habit.
