Electronic Cigarettes – More a Problem than a Solution for Cigarette Smokers

I love Swedish Snus: the taste, the nicotine, the fact that it’s completely discreet, and most importantly for my health.  I could not quit smoking.  Believe me, I tried many times.  Swedish Snus was the only substitute for cigarettes which allowed me to stop a 35 year/2 pack a day smoking addiction.  Since snus is at least 98% less harmful than cigarettes, I’m also healthier than I was 3 years ago when I made the switch.

Cigarette smoking is deadly.  Unfortunately, even tobacco industry scientists admit that cigarettes are the most effective nicotine delivery system on the market.  The nicotine from snus and smokeless tobacco is a gentle ride up and stays in your system longer.  Cigarettes give an immediate spike of nicotine and sugar which fades quickly, but hits you hard when you inhale.

Don’t be fooled by e-cigarettes, either.  Electronic cigarettes only deliver 18% of the nicotine a tobacco cigarette does.  What e-cigarettes do accomplish is replicate the smoking experience close enough to either drive an ex-smoker back to tobacco cigarettes or keep a current smoker using both tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

At the Tobacco Plus Expo this past May, I had absolutely no urge for a cigarette even though thousands of packs were available for free and, since you could smoke in the convention hall, the air was full of cigarette smoke.  That was, until I spent 15 minutes with an e-cigarette in one hand and an e-cigar in the other.

When I was finally dragged away, I REALLY felt like a cigarette.  I suddenly enjoyed the smell of smoke in the air.  The free packs of sample cigarettes suddenly took on a new meaning.  I didn’t smoke that day and still haven’t.  For a short time, I wanted to though.  I realized just how easy it would be fall off the snus wagon back to smoking cigarettes.  Cigarettes never really let go of your psyche.  I was cocky and I learned a lesson.