Double Standard Much?

I went to the liquor store the other day to pick up a bottle of Jameson for a friend of mine, and in my search for Irish whiskey (I eventually figured out that all the Jameson whiskeys were actually kept behind the counter) I got a glimpse of what has become of the alcohol industry.  I don’t drink much at all anymore, since I discovered the pure, unadulterated awesomeness of kava bars, so I haven’t really paid attention to the directions that have been taken in liquor and beer marketing of late.  It made me wonder… “Why is vodka in no danger of being banned by the FDA, with flavors like Cotton Candy, Buttered Popcorn, Key Lime Pie, Whipped Cream, Rainbow Sorbet, Cupcake, Regular Cake, Glazed Doughnut, Maple Bacon, Blueberry Pancake, Icy Mint, Passionfruit, Coconut, Ginger Anise, Pumpkin Pie,… the list goes on and on and on and on and on and… you get the picture.

Now, let’s go over a few E-juice flavors… Cotton Candy, Popcorn, Key Lime Pie, Whipped Cream, Rainbow Sherbet, Vanilla Cupcake, Red Velvet Cake, Glazed Doughnut, Bacon, Blueberry Pancake, Blue Frost, Passionfruit, Coconut, Anise, Pumpkin Spice… the list goes on and on and on… you get the picture.  No, I’m not repeating myself and I didn’t cut and paste the liquor list to the E-liquid list.  There is actually NO difference between the amount of flavors available for liquor (particularly vodka) and the flavors available for E-juice.  In fact, the manufacturers of both products more than likely order their flavors from the same pool of companies.

So, the FDA is going to extreme lengths to ban or severely regulate E-cigarettes because the flavors are obviously meant to appeal to children in order to get them addicted to smoking tobacco, but these flavored vodkas are just variety meant for adult consumption only.  One of these drugs will impair your judgement, ruin your life, destroy your body- inside and out, kill people in horrific motor vehicle collisions, cause divorces, deplete bank accounts, and cause unintentional/unwanted sexual experiences.  The other drug (by itself) is not actually harmful, does not destroy your body, ruin your life, or kill others in car accidents… it does, however, help reduce approach avoidance behavior, increases cognitive abilities, … read the article I wrote about it for more.  So, in typical government, bass ackwards-fashion , the all-powerful Food and Drug Administration has decided that the life-destroying drug that kills innocent people on our highways by splattering their frail bodies across a hundred yards of pavement, should be protected and its marketing approach should remain undisturbed.  But God forbid that E-liquid companies that have figured out a way to provide the almost completely safe drug, nicotine, should be prohibited from using the same exact marketing approach because… I don’t know, because nicotine is actually the fallen archangel Lucifer incarnate and is lurking behind every corner to suck your lungs out of your chest through a straw while cutting your children in half and skinning your dog, cackling evilly at a fingernails-on-chalkboard pitch.  Where exactly is there any semblance of logic in this situation, FDA?  What methodology and deductive-reasoning guidelines did you use to arrive at such a dim-witted decision?  And who wrote the pay-off check that you accepted on condition that you bury the E-cigarette industry?

It baffles me that the proponents of this thinking claim that these types of flavors are designed to attract children, and win them over to a dangerous, unhealthy lifestyle.  True, there’s a lot of kids out there who love cotton candy… but they love cotton candy, because they love eating cotton candy, not because they found something with a flavor that sparks nostalgia over festivals, county fairs, etc.  kids also love to ride in fast sports cars, so maybe we should regulate and ban fast cars because they are designed to appeal to our youth and coax them into a life-threatening lifestyle.  Some teenager somewhere probably likes pumpkin pie during the holidays.  But damn near ever true American adult in this great nation of ours also lover pumpkin pie, so who are these flavors appealing to again?  Since when did good flavors become necessarily associated with children, so much so that adults are completely excluded from considerations of tastiness in consumables?

Now, let’s not forget about TV advertising… According to liquor commercials on TV, if you drink, you’ll get to join an awesome crew of bad-ass pirates and hang out with half-naked sluts all day.  Or, you could fall off a boat and battle a leviathan to get your barrel of whiskey back… then hang out with half-naked sluts all day.  Or you could just chill out in your home watching football and, of course, hang out with half-naked sluts all day.  Now, our youngest children are exposed to Jake and the Neverland Pirates from birth through their toddler years.  A little older and they start to fantasize about living the exciting life of Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean fame.  This summer the blockbuster movie Pacific Rim is romanticising the epic battles against sea monsters, just like the ones that John Jameson fights to get his booze back.  So how, exactly, are we supposed to assume that the liquor ad campaigns are not going to attract the interest of young people?  And the FDA expects us to believe that they’re looking out for our children, keeping them away from enticements towards dangerous addictions?  If you actually buy this bullsh*t, I got a pretty red bridge in San Francisco to sell you.

Let’s be honest here for a second.  Obviously there are some kids out there that see a Caramel Apple E-juice and suddenly want it.  But psychologically speaking, if you were to hand them an e-cigarette with Caramel Apple juice and an actual caramel apple… which one do you think they would pick (assuming, of course, that this child likes caramel apples)?  There is a big difference here regarding the mechanism of desire in human beings of different ages.  This is important to keep in mind when you tackle this issue of “flavored e-cigarettes that lure kids into heroine-level addictions.”

What really bugs me about all this is that the FDA (and all of those government agencies, departments, administrations, etc.) can implement laws that affect the lives of millions without a democratic process in place.  When was the last time you voted on fire-retardant chemical coating requirements for wooden structures in a publicly accessible business (a little situation I recently ran into where I work)?  Oh, you’ve never voted for legal requirements and regulations?  Funny… I thought this was a democracy.  I thought we were supposed to be able to vote on the laws that govern us.  Nope… not in this free country.  Here we are subject to the whims and corruptions of 3-letter agencies… and the FDA, in this case, is thinking about pulling the rug out from under the growing, economy-boosting, life-saving E-cigarette industry.  All we have at our disposal is a voice, which can get really loud and impossible to ignore if we work on it.  If we scream loud enough from the proverbial mountaintops that the FDA is trying to kill us by forcing us to return to the deadly habit of tobacco smoking, eventually they’ll give up on banning E-cigs, simply to improve their public image.

Beach Side Vapors- Sweet Rum Tobacco

Beach Side Vapors is local to where I live, as I stated in my first review of their products, so I really want to be kind to them, and give them outstanding reviews on all of their flavors.  I really want to do this, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to yet… and their Sweet Rum Tobacco offering is no exception, unfortunately.  I’m all about supporting local business over evil corporate tycoons… but I have to draw a line somewhere.

BSV’s Sweet Rum Tobacco is only moderately sweet… and that’s about it.  There is nothing in this E-liquid that suggests the presence of either rum or tobacco flavoring.  I guess the color of the juice is somewhat akin to what one would expect in a rum/tobacco flavored E-juice, but that’s as far as it goes.  My friend, who sat next to me at my beloved kava bar while I was taste testing this BSV product asked me if I was vaping a cotton candy juice.  Obviously, a statement like that speaks volumes about the wide miss associated with the targeted flavor in this case.

One good thing I can say about the Sweet Rum Tobacco is that it vapes smoother than the other Beach Side Vapor products I’ve tried.  I don’t know if this means that they increased the VG and decreased the PG, or that the sweetness covers up the harshness to a degree.  I suppose if your only aim is to vape nicotine in lieu of an analog cig, then this is a good option for you.  It’s inexpensive and available in larger 30ml bottles.  The throat hit is ok… not really like “real” smoke, but you don’t have to worry about coughing your innards out of your body.  The vapor production is the high point of this juice, and is easily competitive with the vapor productions of many higher quality E-liquids.

All in all, another thumbs down for Beach Side Vapors.  I hope that they figure out that they need to improve their product soon, or the better U.S. companies are going to put them out of business.  Mr. Nice Guy Vape is also local to me, and I’m watching their products replace BSV’s in many of our local e-cigarette stores, tobacco retailers, and head shops.  They really need to up their quality to the level of American made vapes, because at this point in time, they are too similar (and more expensive) than the mass produced Chinese equivalents.

Vape Wars: A New Hope (Sorry Mr. Lucas… had to do it.)

Yep, that’s Princess Leia vaping an e-cigarette! I guess we don’t know everything about women yet. Hahaha

We all owe a ‘thank you’ (and a donation) to the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association, better known as CASAA.  Thanks to the generosity of E-cigarette users of means, the CASAA has just completed the first large-scale scientific study of the constitution, potential dangers, and health benefits of vaping.  There have been many smaller studies so far that, in my opinion, have gone a long way to prove that E-cig vapers are, in fact, participating in a low-to-no risk activity that replaces their former unhealthy smoking habits with something that won’t eventually land them in the cancer ward of a hospital, talking to people with the use of one of those nifty robot voice thingies.  And while this means that the probability for our eventually becoming Darth Vader has significantly dropped, it does mean we’ll be around long enough to see the first, real-life light saber hit the marketplace as an affordable price.

To be specific about the nature of this study, it should be mentioned that actual, chemical experimentation was not a part of the study, which was lead by the esteemed Dr. Igor (love the name!) Burstyn of Drexel University.  There has been more than enough of that through many, many sources, despite what the Evil Empire… I mean the FDA, would have you believe.  The CASAA’s mission here was to evaluate the methodology and results of about 9,000 of these studies from around the globe.  Then, these results were synthesized together in a number of different ways in order to highlight the findings of chemical analysis, stressing not only the confirmed presence of various manufacturers’ stated ingredients, but also the various contaminants that have been reported over the years.  Lastly, these results were juxtaposed against typical exposure standards.

The results?  Well, in the words of the researchers themselves, were “surprised that even the worst-case scenario risks are so low.”  To sum everything up in a sentence:  The risks of vaping E-cigarettes are the same as the risks of chewing nicotine gum, or wearing the patch, that is to say 99.9% lower than the risks of smoking tobacco cigarettes.  And those are the “worst-case scenario risks.”  The rest of the study presents results relating to the exposure levels, the presence of chemical contaminants, etc.  All of these are well below levels that could be considered the bare minimum level for presenting potential health hazards, even based at the rate of puffs taken by a typical “heavy” smoker.

This is an important study for all of us vapers, because of it’s scope.  It was definitely a decisive study, including almost all peer-reviewed scientific journal entries available anywhere at the time of the study’s commencement.  This will be hard for the FDA to ignore and brush under the table like they have done with ALL of the smaller studies, no matter how pure the scientific method behind each study.  The Galactic Empire can no longer afford to ignore the Rebels on Hoth, because they are on the way to destroying the Death Star (I’m loving this Star Wars analogy.)  The next step here… Lobbying, which is a particularly detestable profession, but unfortunately necessary in today’s political climate.  I’m praying that the CASAA is working on getting their people in to see Representatives and Senators to present the diffinitive results of this all-inclusive study, and to show them that vapers are growing in number because they want to be healthier, they want to exercise their freedom to ingest nicotine, while avoiding the pitfalls of tobacco smoking.  Hopefully, we can get the point across, because in light of this research, the only counter-argument that the opposition has left to offer is that E-cigarette vaping looks like smoking, which looks “cool” to some minors, who might desire to start vaping to look “cooler,” then eventually give up the infinite diversity of flavors available in E-juice in favor of the two available flavors of tobacco cigarettes:  Regular, and menthol.  Pretty weak argument, if you ask me.

In conclusion, the FDA’s attempt to brush this study off would upset Chewbacca, and it’s not wise to upset a Wookie.  Just sayin’…

 

Original Articles:

 

CASAA: New study confirms that chemicals in electronic cigarettes pose minimal health risk

Peering Through the Mist: What does the Chemistry of Contaminants in Electronic Cigarettes Tell us about Health Risks?

You Know you’re a Vape-Geek When…

I figured I’d put this fun list together, after I’ve been so seriously pissed whilst writing my last few non-review articles.  You know you’re an Über-Super-Incredibly-Nerdy-Ultra-Vaping-Geek when:

1.  You no longer attempt to tap the ashes off of your E-cigarette.

2.  You have to be reminded that the cheapo, disposable e-cigs at convenience stores are actually the same basic technology as your supremely advanced, modded-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life steampunk personal nicotine vaporizer.

3.  You can’t go to the grocery store without picturing every food item on the label of an E-juice bottle.

4.  You’ve ever unconsciously taken a puff of vapor while standing directly in front of your boss… thinking nothing of the incident.

5.  You’ve actually worked out a script to recite whenever someone asks you about your E-cigarette.

6.  You’ve ever discussed clearomizers for more than one hour with another vaper.

7.  You know the difference between cartridges, cartomizers, atomizers, and clearomizers.

8.  You can spot a fake eGo within a few seconds of seeing it.

9.  You can’t see an item anywhere in your home, office, etc. without trying to figure out how to turn it into a mod somehow.

10.  You no longer vape the higher nicotine levels of E-juice.

11.  You own more than 20 complete, vapable E-cigarettes (regardless of whether or not they are currently in a connected, ready-to-vape state.

12.  When you see a movie or movie preview that has been rated PG, your first thought is “Propylene Glycol” not “Parental Guidance Suggested.”

13.  You can’t see the letter “V” without instinctively taking a puff off of your E-cigarette.

14.  You have a visceral, rage-filled reaction to even a passing mention of the FDA.  (See what I mean… you just snarled for a split section, didn’t you?)

15.  You understand that a ship full of Dekang sinking to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean isn’t something to cry over.

Feel free to add more, but please add them to the comment section on the actual, original blog post so everyone can enjoy what you’ve contributed to the list.  If you add your suggestion to one of the Facebook or Twitter postings, it won’t actually get included on the list.

8 BS Lies about E-Cigarettes

There’s a lot of talk going on concerning the “truth” behind this crazy, new E-cigarette phenomenon.  Unfortunately, there’s an element in society that has decided that they are going to eradicate anything even remotely related to smoking from the face of the Earth!  Well-intentioned though it may be, this loud and obnoxious segment of the population has (d)evolved from “cigarettes cause cancer” to “Everything that even looks like a cigarette is the Devil and is going to devour your family in their sleep while raping your parakeet.”  In short, they abandoned science a long time ago, and are simply relying on marketing manipulation to further their political and financial lobbies.  So, below is a short list of some of the more obviously bullshit lies that have been spread about electronic cigarettes and the practice of inhaling atomized vapor in general:

1.  E-Cigarettes Contain Antifreeze:  False!  E-cigarettes, or to be definitionally accurate, E-liquid contains to a greater or lesser amount Propylene Glycol, which is found in many foods that you already have in your kitchen.  Diethylene Glycol is a dangerous chemical found in antifreeze liquid.  These two chemicals are not the same.  They are, in fact, different… which can be seen by the visible lack of similarity between the words “propylene” and “diethylene,” among other, more scientific differences.  The misunderstanding comes from the fact that a few cartridges (not separately bottled E-juices, I might add) contained trace elements of diethylene glycol.  This, however, isn’t enough information to back up the claim that E-cigs contain antifreeze because A. antifreeze is more than just diethylene glycol and B. the trace amounts were so insignificant that one would need to vape hundreds of thousands of puffs off of an E-cigarette each day to come anywhere close to the amounts that the FDA themselves have identified as unacceptable levels of Diethylene Glycol.  So, as we can see, this is complete and total bullshit, based on bullshit that kind of sounds like something that could possibly be dangerous at much, much higher levels than are present during the entire vaping experience.

2.  There isn’t Enough Research Yet to Say that E-Cigarettes are Effective Smoking Cessation Tools:  Really False!!  I’m not even going to dignify this one with a long-winded response.  Just head on back to a few of my earlier posts like Studies Warrant Further Investigation into E-cig/Smoking Cessation.  Or try The Rest of the Story for some enlightening information.  Suffice it to say that there is more than enough properly conducted scientific studies that all lead to one, undeniable fact:  electronic cigarettes are effective as smoking cessation tools, more so than the patch, gum, and inhaler (non-vapor based).

3.  E-cigarettes Cause Young People to Start Smoking:  Idiotically False!!!  We all need to take a step back for a moment and try to realize that minors generally tend to become interested in doing the things that adults do across the board because they are impatient to become adults.  This includes smoking and vaping and drinking and sex and road trips and voting and graduating college and buying a nice car and having children and etc., etc., etc… I know plenty of minors who go around smoking Camel Crushes because they like the little popping ball of menthol in the filter.  I know minors who drink Goldschlagger because it has gold flakes at the bottom of the bottle.  I know minors who have menage a trois because they saw it in a porno online.  Were these things marketed to minors specifically?  Because I know adults who smoke Camel Crushes, drink Goldschlagger, and join threesums for the same exact reasons.  E-cigarettes are technological wonders, which tend to impress the youth and their technophile minds.  But do they cause the youth to start smoking?  If you’ve ever tried vaping, with all of the flavors available in E-juice form, and then smoked a cigarette for the first time in your life afterwards… I’m pretty sure you would immediately find the analog cigarette disgusting and go right back to your apple pie flavored personal vaporizer.  And let’s not forget that you still have to be 18 to buy E-cigarettes and/or E-liquids!  Minors will still get their hands on them anyway, just as they do with alcohol, analog cigs, illegal drugs, and pornography… but they are breaking the law to do that just as they are breaking the law to purchase E-cig supplies.  Either make all of those things illegal, or don’t ban E-cigarettes!!

4.  E-Liquid Production Needs to be Regulated:  Retardedly False!!!!  In fact, the true version of this statement would be, “Regulating E-Cigarettes will make them UNHEALTHY and DANGEROUS.”  That sounds backwards to us, because we’ve been conditioned to feel that regulations make for better quality products.  The problem is that Big Tobacco, in their own words, are supporting the regulation of E-cigarettes (which they are now manufacturing themselves) to “require consistent product performance and reduced variability.”  Big Tobacco also goes so far as to define these phrases as they are read by the (analog) cigarette conglomerate.  Consistent product performance and reduced variability are achieved by the inclusion of additives which have been designed by the tobacco companies to be more addictive than regular, naturally-occurring nicotine.  E-Juice manufacturers, on the other hand, almost all disclose their ingredients up front… and these ingredients are just four simple, additive-free, stable, and safe ingredients: propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine (vegetable oil), nicotine (in a PG or VG base), and flavoring.  This list is significantly shorter than the 4,000 ingredients used in the production of tobacco cigarettes (most of which are additives used to produce consistent product performance and reduced variability).  Read more at my previous article: How Philip Morris Plans to Screw Us.

5.  Second-Hand Vapor is Dangerous:  The-Stuff-of-Bad-Science-Fiction False!!!!!  The FDA has released official statements that claim they have found the following dangerous chemicals and substances in “second-hand E-cigarette smoke” (they use the word “smoke,” that wasn’t a misprint): tobacco-specific nitrosamines, volatile organic compounds, acetone, form aldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzo(a)pyrene as well as silicate and various metal particles (sodium, iron, aluminum, nickel, copper, magnesium, lead, chromium, manganese, while potassium, and zinc).  I find it interesting that these are the chemicals found in second-hand Tobacco smoke: word for word!  Maybe they just read the wrong report, but I tend to doubt it.  I’d like to suggest that they add a few more items to that list.  Let’s add adamantium and carbonite to the metals list.  Then… let’s see… we could include blowfish poison, bantha poodoo, and concentrated, acidic alien blood as well.  Also, there would undoubtedly be a significant amount of bull feces particles in addition to all the other stuff.

6.  E-Cigarette Batteries Explode:  Insanely imbecilic Falseness!!!!!!  Has it ever happened before?  Yes.  Does it happen on a regular basis?  Well, since there has only been one reported and verified case of this happening, I’m gonna go with “No” on that one.  I wrote about this last month in my article: Couple Sues over Exploding Battery.  All batteries are capable of exploding if they are defective to begin with and are subjected to the right series of conditions.  This includes cell phone batteries that you hold right next to your brain on a regular basis.  As with all stories of disaster, the media has taken this story, which involves the already unpopular E-cigarette devices that threaten to actually help people stop dying, and turn it into a terrifying horror story about a creature that sleeps under your bed and eats happiness and love.  Let’s also point out some other important parts of this story that are generally glossed over in order to stress the aforementioned happiness-devouring creature aspect:  The E-cigs were of a cheap, gas station brand… not “real” E-cigarettes as most of us know them.  The female victim in question here was charging the battery off of their car cigarette-lighter plug, and resting the battery near her leg.  They also just happened to be on their way to some third world slum to do mission work, and were robbed of their saintly act by those conniving, devilish E-cigarette companies.  While I don’t wish to say that this story was completely fabricated, I do feel it necessary to point out that there are a lot of extremely convenient, dramatic elements to this entire account that smack of narrative fiction.  Just saying…

7.  Nicotine is Bad for You:  More False than the Falsiest Falsitude!!!!!!!  In 10 Things you might not have Known about Nicotine, I pointed out just how untrue this is.  The only health condition that can even remotely take ownership of this ridiculous claim would be hypertension (high blood pressure), but even that is a stretch, especially if the E-cigarette user is vaping one of the lower nicotine strengths.  But nicotine has actually been proven to help your memory, it is not carcinogenic, it reduces approach-avoidance behavior, promotes synapse communication in the brain and increases cognitive abilities, it helps Alzheimer’s patients, and more! (read the article for the rest of the list)

8.  E-Cigarettes are a Fad:  Time will tell… Obviously, nobody can know this for sure until E-cigs pass the test of time, but one could easily have said (back in the first days of the automobile) that cars were just a passing fad, or that personal computers were going to fade away over time, or that this whole Penicillin thing was a waste of time.  This technology could easily evolve into so much more.  It could become a new way for human beings to ingest nutritious chemicals… it could help to improve people’s memories and retention of learned facts… it could help the horrors associated with Alzheimer’s disease.  There are so many positive and exciting possibilities for the future of E-cigarettes that I can’t believe that anyone could convince themselves that they are just a “passing fad.”  What a ridiculous notion.

The above list includes just a few of the lies that are being spread about a new cultural phenomenon that, while possibly not being as desirable as complete nicotine abstinence, is extremely helpful and life-saving to people who are attempting to quit smoking in an effort to improve their health and overall quality of life.  It’s truly disgusting that there are people out there that are rallying against this beneficial technology simply because they swallow the first thing that they hear without any further research into the issue, because they refuse to take the time to fully understand something new and alien to them, because they are blissfully unaware that the sources of their information are not exactly admirable for reasons of honesty and uncorrupted nature.  Please take the time to spread this list around, in an effort to counter lies with truth, and to inform people of something that not only is an extreme reduction in the harm suffered by nicotine addicts, but also may very well save the life of someone close to them… someone they love.

Informative Sites:

-The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-Free Alternatives Associations (CASAA)

-Government Reports on E-Cigarettes (look at the “Related Citations” section in the right sidebar)

-The Rest of the Story

-The Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association (SFATA)

For E-Cigarette Supplies and E-Juices, Please Visit:

Vape Land US

Johnson Creek (Red Oak)- Solstice

Well, apparently Johnson Creek Smoke Juice offers what they call their Red Oak Line, a propylene glycol-free, 100% vegetable glycerine-based E-juice.  This is an improvement over the last flavor of theirs I reviewed: Black Cherry.  This is also the first E-liquid Johnson Creek is producing that is not supposed to taste like some sort of tobacco concoction, as it has no tobacco flavoring in it at all.  Based on this particular mix, I’d have to say that they are definitely on the right track toward greatness.

According to Johnson Creek’s website, their Solstice juice is a blend of watermelon, raspberry, and honeydew… the last of which I’ve really come to appreciate since taking on the overwhelming task of rating and reviewing all the world’s E-liquids.  I’d have to say that their aim to create an enjoyable, smooth E-juice was almost a bulls-eye.  The draw off of my Vivi Nova announced the presence of the watermelon flavoring, a light, not overbearing addition.  The inhale stressed the overall melon flavor… the watermelon with the overtone of honeydew melon.  And finally there was the very pleasing raspberry exhale.  The only deduction in rating here is a slight, barely-noticeable “emptiness” in the flavors.  They felt almost like a “diet” vape, if there was such a thing.  This no doubt has something to do with the fact that there is no PG in this mix at all.  It’s not always good to take out all of the PG… because it adds a little more substance to the vapor.

That same PG-lessness in the mix also affects the throat hit and the vapor production… but in this case they are affected only a little.  There is a coolness to the vaping of Solstice, reminiscent of the crisp, freshness of the fruits emulated in this blend, that makes me wonder if there isn’t a secret ingredient in this one.  A touch of menthol or koolada possibly?

A good French Inhale on this vapor added nothing special to the taste of the three main flavors.  Their scent can be picked up on and identified readily enough, but only if you’re really paying attention.  And those who stood within a sniffer’s distance of me while I vaped were unaware that I was vaping at all, aside from seeing the plumes emanating from my mouth.

I can certainly recommend Johnson Creek Smoke Juice’s Red Oak Line Solstice flavor (Wow, that’s a mouthful… sounds classy!), but not without a few notes of warning.  Well, not really warnings so much as explanations.  First, it’s important to know the differences between PG and VG, and what effects result in the increasing and/or decreasing of either one in your E-juice mixology center (i.e. your garage or bedroom).  Second, I would stress that this is Johnson Creek’s first foray into the realm of non-tobacco flavored E-juices.  Their company was apparently created with the goal of concentrating on the tobacco blends only.  Armed with those two pieces of information, you’ll be able to truly enjoy the remarkable Solstice blend by Johnson Creek.

Why Vaping Over Cold-Turkey? A Rebel Must Rebel!

I have been confronted many a time, as I’m sure you all have, about how it would just be much, much better for us to leave the oral fixation and nicotine dependency behind for good, abandoning the vaping arts in favor of the more historically reliable (arguable) cold-turkey method of quitting smoking.  In an isolated, controlled environment, this would of course be true, but what these cold-turkeys fail to take into account is the fact that nothing that happens in real life happens in an isolated, controlled environment.  We leave that to Stanford’s Research Staff and MIT Physicists.  In the “real world” we are all interconnected with everyone and everything around us.  These surroundings include the types of people and things we’ve chosen to surround ourselves with over the long years of our lives… specifically, our lives as practising smokers.

Why does the modern man or woman start smoking?  Well, as long as John Travolta and Bruce Willis movies continue to air on TV (not to mention old Bogie flicks, the increasingly popular Mad Men series, and Tyler Durden imagery), the “coolness” factor is still present, despite the tens of millions of dollars being spent on anti-smoking campaigns.  Incidentally, these anti-smoking ads actually support the smoking industry in ways that straight cigarette advertising could never even hope to achieve without the use of illegal, subliminal images of death, disease, and destruction… but I digress.  People start smoking, and more importantly continue to smoke not only because of the addictive aspects, but also because of the social and cultural ideologies that surround you as a smoker.  Essentially, because smoking has become such a social taboo, and is immensely unpopular in the official, legitimate world, many continue to smoke as a simple, visual expression of “fuck you” to the government and the “establishment.”  Others are lead to groups of rebellious types because of shared beliefs, and pick up the habit of smoking because the vast majority of people they find in that circle are smokers.

So that leads us to our original question:  Vaping or cold-turkey?  Let’s avoid, for the moment, the issue of nicotine health benefits.  I’ve written about that in several other articles.  The majority of smokers out there have a well-defined rebellious streak to them, and they naturally congregate to other rebels in their social interactions.  Other rebels are likely to also be smokers.  So quitting cold-turkey immediately suffers from a few undeniable obstacles right out of the proverbial gate.  I, for one, applaud the rebellious nature of the typical American smoker (not to mention smokers in other nations), because under a failing government, and increasing federal restrictions, regulations, and gradually fading “freedoms,” it will be the rebels that stand up and say, “No, we’re not gonna take your shit anymore!”  That’s obviously just my opinion, but an opinion founded on historical evidence.

Quitting smoking cold-turkey means, among other things, possibly leaving behind those people who trigger your desires to light up.  But if those people are the only kind of people you get along with… how do you remedy your desire to improve your health with your need to socialize with like-minded rebellious spirits?  The only answer: Vaping!  The oral fixation of smoking, the action of bringing the cigarette to your mouth and taking a drag, the inhalation of a smoke-like substance, and the nicotine fix… all of these things are accessible by the E-cigarette user, without almost all of the dangers associated with the analog cigarette.

So what’s so wrong about that?  Why are there people who are still up in arms about vaping?  Firstly, there’s probably an issue of ignorance present here.  They hate vaping because it looks just like smoking, and they are simply too lazy to research the issue on their own.  We all know that there are way too many people out there that just swallow the first news they read about a topic without considering that there might be another side to the story.  However, I fear that there are certain elements of society that hate vaping because it shows the immortal spirit of the American rebel.  It says to the government and the political puritans, “Fuck you, we’re gonna figure out a way to quit smoking without quitting smoking, just to piss you off!”  This may seem like a small, nit-picking excuse.  It might sound like a smoker’s rationalization to support their unhealthy decision.  It might also just sound like the ramblings of a crazy person.  But mark my words… the rebels will play an important role in the future of our country and way of life, so be careful when you criticise their decision-making processes.  They just might save you from your own short-sightedness!

Johnson Creek- Black Cherry (Tobacco)

When I first tasted this E-juice through my Vivi Nova Clearomizer on my eGo-Vari battery, I actually wanted to walk out into the street and murder a baby chipmunk. I was truly appalled at the horror I suffered at the hands of Johnson Creek Smoke Juices. Then, while visiting the website with the intention of blasting “Black Cherry” on their own site’s review area, I realized that what I was actually vaping was Black Cherry TOBACCO flavor! So, I gave it another try, and while I still am not very happy with this E-liquid, I must confess that there is a chipmunk running around alive today because I actually read the manufacturer’s description of their product. (I should add that I got this juice through a friendly trade with one of my co-workers, hence my not fully understanding what I was dealing with.) That said, a slightly more descriptive title on this juice’s bottle would not be out of line here.

Even with the added knowledge that my Black Cherry vaping experience was actually a Black Cherry Tobacco vaping experience, the flavor of Johnson Creek’s creation is less than impressive. I used to be an avid pipe and cigar smoker, on top of my cigarette habit, and I smoked many a black cherry blend through my briar pipe in my day. One of those blends was the easy-to-find, mass produced Captain Black and Paladin varieties, available at that convenience store right down the road from wherever you currently reside. The flavor of Johnson Creek’s juice is somewhat suggestive of these brands’ tobaccos, mixed with cigarette tobacco and a bunch of chemical preservatives that carry more discernible flavor than any of the aforementioned tobaccos. The chemical presence here is unmistakable.

This is one of the few E-liquids I’ve come across that actually lists the ingredients on the back of the label. On the list in this case, I noticed propylene glycol listed before vegetable glycerine… which suggests to me that there is way more PG in this blend than VG. The harshness of the throat hit supports this theory. Vapor production, however, doesn’t suffer at all, and is akin to the smoke production of an actual pipe, surpassing that of the average cigarette.

All in all, I can’t go so far as to recommend this particular Johnson Creek product. However, if you just quit smoking Paladin Black Cherry tobacco via a briar pipe, I can wholeheartedly suggest buying an electronic pipe (so as to maintain the illusion completely) and load it up with this stuff. You’ll feel like you never quit.

A Collection of Vaping Memes

I’m feeling very stoic today, and that hardly ever happens, so I decided to put this easy, but enjoyable post together for all of my visitors:

And there you go.  Hope you all got some yucks out of these.

10 Things you might not Know about Nicotine

The following are a few interesting facts that you might not have known about nicotine.  This can be helpful to those of you who are trying to defend your decision to vape E-cigarettes from the sceptical mindsets of friends, family, co-workers, etc.  The misconception that nicotine is a carcinogen, and a dangerous drug, is often confused with the many other chemicals specifically in cigarettes that are carcinogenic, dangerous, unhealthy, etc.  The following is a list of many of the health benefits of nicotine:

1.  There are over 4,000 chemicals in the average cigarette… many of them carcinogenic.  Nicotine is NOT one of them.

2.  Nicotine has been found to reduce approach-avoidance behavior in animals, and healthy human volunteers.

3.  Nicotine interacts with cell membranes in such a way as to ease the passage of certain ions through the membrane.  This aids in, among other things, the communication between synapses in your brain, increasing cognitive functions.

4.  Nicotine has been found to substantially increase immediate as well as long-term memory abilities.

5.  Nicotine increases attentiveness in patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease.

6.  Nicotine is used for certain types of neurodegenerative pain issues, and also pain problems associated with come mental disorders.

7.  Nicotine can be used as analgesia for postoperative recovery.

8.  Nicotine is being researched as a possible additive to opioid medicinal regimens, because it stimulates respiration, opposing the opioid’s tendency to depress respiration.  It also increases alertness in sharp contrast to opiod’s well-known “drowsiness” effects.

9.  Nicotine decreases appetite, as much if not more than cannabinoids increase it.

10.  Nicotine is currently being considered as treatment against such diseases and disorders as ADD/ADHD, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory skin disorders and injuries, obesity, and ulcerative colitis.

There is one thing holding nicotine back from the many positive uses that it is capable of… disinformation (properly defined as the purposeful conveying of untrue facts as opposed to misinformation which is merely accidental).  Cigarettes and nicotine have become a hot-button political health issue that has long since ceased to be about actual health and now has more to do with which sides buys and pays for the most politicians.  Enter into the mix, electronic cigarettes, which deliver nicotine, and only nicotine in a way that’s outwardly reminiscent of the smoking of “real” or “analog” tobacco cigarettes.  The politics of the issue make it easy to demonize something that is even remotely similar to tobacco cigarettes. But don’t let them get away with it!  And when you hear negative “scientific” evidence about e-cigarettes, try to find the other side of the story… because there’s always another side to the story.  There is a lot of valid, correctly-done scientific work being done out there regarding the health benefits of e-cigarettes.  On the other side of the coin is poorly constructed, statistically skewed “scientific” information regarding the health dangers of e-cigarettes.  Don’t let them scare you back to smoking!  You know you feel better now that you’re vaping than you did when you were still smoking.

Sources:

SFATA- Effects of Nicotine

Anxiolytic effects of nicotine in a rodent test of approach-avoidance conflict.

Nicotine as a cognitive enhancer.

Nicotine as Therapy