RICHMOND — Galen Kipe has not smoked a cigarette in more than three months.
He could not kick his habit of 17 years with nicotine patches or gum. He finally put away his Marlboro menthols for good by swapping them for electronic cigarettes, which look like the real thing and give him his nicotine fix but do not contain tobacco.
“It’s the closest thing to what I was doing before,’’ Kipe, 34, a steelworker from Asheboro, N.C., said. “I’m still getting the nicotine, but I don’t feel like I’m getting any kind of bad side effects. It can’t be any worse than actual cigarettes.’’
CaptainMOAB wrote:
Thanks FDA for trying to stop sales of a product that is much safer than tobacco, and might be the best current replacement for those who use tobacco and can’t quit. This crusade just proves that the FDA doesn’t care about people’s health. Not sure what the FDA really cares about. Maybe the government likes the idea of keeping an underclass that it can pick on through, like smokers. Also, with e-cigarettes, you can bet that taxes from regular cigs will go down. And not only that, those big tobacco execs who donate so much to the politicians’ campaigns won’t be able to do so if their products aren’t as popular. Yeah, there might be some health concerns….but it’s water vapor with nicotine in it. Diet soda is probably more unhealthy.
mzpanther wrote:
The FDA should be funding research into e-cigs to determine whether they are an effective smoking cessation product- not wasting their time in court trying to stop of the use of an already highly popular product. Considering how ineffective nicotine replacement patches/gum are, it would be in the best interest of public health to do so. People who say otherwise are simply protecting the interests of the drug industry.
mikeduofa wrote:
I switched to eCigs about 2 months ago, after struggling to quit for years. Best cessation device ever. I hardly ever use it now, and have stepped down my nicotine considerably. I should be off it completely in a couple more months. I had tried gum and patches to no avail. I’ve pushed this on my smoking friends and a bunch of them have also started using them and seen similar results. They should be a prescribed treatment for smoking cessation.