How Important Were Flavors To Help You To Quit Smoking?

I smoked menthol cigarettes for 45+ years. Never cared for the taste or smell of cigarette tobacco, but I liked my menthol. When I tried Blu ecigs, the tobacco didn't taste like tobacco, it just tasted "meh". The menthol flavor was more meh with a mentholesque hint, and they were a freaking hassle. When I finally realized this weird vaporizer shop across the street from the hospital and next to the ambulance company actually sold E-cigarettes, not those things you steam up a room with Vick's Vapo-Rub, I went in and told them about my experience with Blu's and asked if they had anything better. I walked out with an eGo starter kit, some fruit flavors, and some menthol and mint juice to mix with them. Success! Got my menthol/nicotine fix and was able to put down the combustibles! For a year and a half I've been doing the same thing only DYI: Fruit and menthol and/or mint. Just had to have that menthol feel or it didn't do the trick for me.

Last week I got a bunch of new flavors from MFS. I mixed up some desert coffee and a key lime pie concoction, no menthol or mint, and it was GOOD!

Now if only somebody would tell this stupid spell checker there is no "u" in flavor!  

Teddy Bears what? I am going to get to that very quickly...

So the whole premise behind the 'flavor' ban seems to be premised on the idea that tobacco flavors are acceptable, but fruit/candy flavors might entice our teen children. Our children, as we refer to them, about to be 18 year old legal 'Adults' in the USA in a short period of time, 18, age enough to join the military, will find the flavor of tobacco so offensive, that they will be unable to handle it?

"Son/Daughter, are you vaping? No way mom, tobacco is so icky! Can I have another bowl of fruit loops?"

It reminds me of coffee, and how many here thought their first cup of coffee was kind of nasty tasting, but you grew into it, even enjoy it? Somehow though Starbucks has survived and thrived. Did you know that coffee can raise your heart rate? Maybe we should keep feeding our teens the McDonald's child meals, because you know, the flavors get to be more challenging as you grow up. (yes I am being very facetious).

Is this really the way we see our teenagers now? No flavors but candy/fruit will entice them, and Teddy Bears of course, teens don't outgrow their stuffed animals either.

This is our government's solution though, ban flavors other then tobacco. It's so deeply incorrect in premise, it's hard to even argue why it's flawed.  

I would bet that the majority of the people that post here are ex-cigarette smokers ... You started vaping as a means to stop smoking cigarettes.

And I am willing to bet that very very few of you would have purchased flavored cigarettes (if they were available) when you were actively smoking cigarettes.

So, my question is .... Why are the majority of the ex-tobacco smokers here buying fruit, breakfast cereal, custard, bakery, candy, etc flavored juice to put in your atomizers?
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Me ... I DIY my juice which is a mix of various tobacco flavors to include some cigar overtones.

Me ... I just don't personally vape something that smells and tastes like apple pie, etc ... but that's just me.  

I vape tobacco exclusively. Unfortunately good ones are few and far between.
It just dawned on me that with the new potential disaster looming over flavors, the vape industry's mixologists must be frantically scurrying around inventing new tobacco mixes.
Hopefully soon the market will be flooded with better ones
Actually I think there might be a whole array of new liquids released masked as "tobacco". Liquids containing the usual flavors with a hint of tobacco that can't be tasted.
This could open up a whole new trend in the vaping industry.  

Since I do all my vaping shopping online and will soon not be able to get eliquid containing nicotine by mail in the US, can one buy liquid nicotine now, store it and add it to pre made liquid? I know that I would have to probably use one of the apps out there to figure out how much to add to 30 or 60 mg of liquid to obtain a 3 mg amount. I don't even know if this is possible. I don't want to go the route of making my own since I have certain flavors I like from a couple of vendors and can probably not match these flavors doing it myself.
I have been vaping for 6 years now and am afraid that I will be forced back to smoking cigarettes when I run out of my current supply.  

I've been trying to get my dad to quit smoking for two years now. He wanted to quit using an e-cig. However, he just can't seem to stick with it. He has been smoking for 30+ years. He smokes almost two packs a day.

I think the problem really is that he hasn't -tried-. As soon as he wants a real smoke, he lights one up. He only uses his e-cig is places he can't smoke.

He says he wants something that taste like tobacco. I've tried buying him numerous tobacco e-liquids. The closest was one from Ahlusion, but he still says it isn't like tobacco. He keeps saying he'll quit, but then he doesn't.

He has an ego with a mini protank, he seems fine with that. He isn't very amused by my mech mods and RTAs. lol.

I'm just lost as to what to do. A lot of people say to just stop telling him to do so and let him do it on his own. It is hard to just sit and watch him smoke though, esp when my mom had lung cancer just over a year ago (luckily, she did quit smoking with an e-cig and went into remission after radiation treatment). When I switched, I had only just started to smoke again (I smoked 3 years, quit, then started smoking again for about 4 months, then to an e-cig). I didn't like tobacco flavors when I started and almost immediately went to fruit flavors. He's tried those too, doesn't have much interest in them.

So my question to you ex long term smokers, what helped you make the switch? I feel like I just can't relate to smoking 30 something years.  

So I have been coming on here and reading posts from people like say, in Washington State who are desperately trying to come up with something vapable after the flavor bans came crashing down, and I went on a pretty serious letter writing campaign in response. Here is the answer I got:

"Thank you for writing me regarding your thoughts on banning smoke-free alternatives to combustible tobacco. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns.

The Trump Administration recently announced plans to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes as officials in Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continue to investigate more than 450 health cases, including six deaths, related to e-cigarette use. According to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, the FDA intends to introduce a policy that will remove the sale of all flavored e-cigarette flavors except tobacco, until otherwise specified.

I understand that this is an important issue for parents and consumers of e-cigarettes in our district. As your Representative, I will continue to monitor this situation as it develops and will keep your thoughts in mind if any legislative action is taken on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Again, thank you for contacting my office about this important issue. If you would like to receive regular updates on this and other matters, please visit my website (www.demings.house.gov/) to sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,

Val Butler Demings
Member of Congress"

The part that instantly grabbed my attention was this:

FDA intends to introduce a policy that will remove the sale of all flavored e-cigarette flavors except tobacco, until otherwise specified.

Is this going to happen ahead of the deeming regulations? Is the FDA going to come up behind us and slip this over our heads while we aren't looking? And while vaping is coming under a full frontal assault, tobacco companies are laughing as they continue to kill 1200 people a day - because the spotlight ain't on them anymore.  

The best strategy according Demetris and PBusardo is to hire a professional PR company to combat the false information that the news media and anti-vaping crowd has been churning out every day/nite on TV and social media. That will take a LOT of money (millions according to D & P). The US vaping industry doesn't have that type of money, but the big manufacturers in China do. China manufacturers will be affected by this if the US vaping industry fails, because it will fail if a flavor ban is successful.



Trump is the key person in all of this. He's the one who will make the final call by using his John Hancock, and he's been known to go against the grain of "The Swamp" in Washington. He is basically only interested in satisfying his voter base. All vapers need to personally contact Trump via the White House and tell him, as a voter, that if he is going to get your vote in 2020 he needs to NOT go forward with a flavor ban. Regardless of how you feel about Trump, or whether you'll actually vote for him when the time comes, this must be done and would take each of us only about 5 - 10 minutes of our time.

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Contact the White House | The White House

WHITE HOUSE: Comment line 202-456-1111 | Switch board 202-456-1414 (the switch board is the best approach as it will put you on hold and give you a chance to speak)
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Trump probably doesn't have a clue about vaping. He doesn't understand how important the use of flavored e-liquid is to the success to stop smoking. Having only "tobacco flavors" to choose from just won't cut it for the majority of vapers.

What he must understand is that a flavor ban will likely destroy the vaping industry in the US. Vape shops will not be able remain viable and will close - a loss of thousands of jobs and small businesses. This will affect his "sterling" numbers of the lowest unemployment in recent memory. There has to be at least 10,000 potential voters who have something to do with the vaping community (probably more), about the number of votes that gave him the presidency. He's not going to want to lose that many votes in the next election.

A flavor ban will result in creating its own Black Market. Many vapers will resort to making their own flavored e-liquid. How did that work out for the homemade black market THC vials that killed 6 people and put over 400 people in intensive care?

Smokers looking to quit smoking will no longer have vape shops or US based online vendors to purchase e-cigarettes. Many vapers will return to smoking, which will increase the 400,000 smokers who died last year.

Please tale a few minutes of your time to contact President Trump.  

If people under a certain age are not allowed to purchase vape items, then what's the issue?

Just don't sell to any minors, and handle it like alcohol and tobacco. Go after any stores or vendors that break these rules and that sells to any minor and hit them with hefty fines or prosecution. Problem solved.

I reject the idiotic, false and unscientific argument that certain types of flavors are only suitable for kids. An adult is not allowed to like fruit flavors or desert flavors or any other type of flavor?

Do adults suddenly lose their sense of taste when they age, and they'll be content vaping poor tobacco imitation flavors and menthol for the rest of their lives?

I'm an adult, and my favorite flavors are custard type flavors. Just because I used to smoke, that doesn't mean that I should have to vape and like tobacco flavors. You don't ban all sorts of flavors and deny adults who are ex-smokers the opportunity to continue to be smoke free, just because they were lucky enough to have found and switched to vaping.

Sorry if I sound cynical, but so what if a handful of people have reportedly died because they were foolish enough to use blackmarket counterfeit items? Items that have zero to do with nic based vaping I should add.

How many millions of people die from tobacco related diseases?

Millions is a lot more than a handful last I checked, and the only thing that banning vaping and vaping related items will accomplish is to ensure that many more people will be added to the list of the dead as many will return to cigs and many current cig smokers will never make the switch to vaping, as the politicians seek to deny people the opportunity to stay off of cigs.

If they ever find a cure for cancer, I wouldn't be surprised if they ban that too, because 7 people happened to get some ill side effects from it.  

I quit smoking and I am not going back, but vaping tastes nasty now. The government messed people over