Know what, I've never actually seen an e-cig, but got this shoved at me outside Tesco's last night. Look at it! Fantastic marketing, high end positioning, looked great. Note the three foot cigarettes on the stand, the lady is in the shot for perspective. £9.99 for 200. I've left the image xtra large so you can read the text on the stand. "feels like a cigarette". "The zero alternative..."
This is the first time I've seen these sold in a public place...
They have a big stand in my local shopping centre too. And I've noticed they are on display in lots of petrol stations particularly tesco. Are they the way forward tho?!
That's not on IMO - the people i used to buy mine from do kiosks and market them similarly as well but don't agree with it
I notice it says zero to everything BUT nicotine - wonder how big a hit of that is in them?
VIP ones are from 0-24mg Kat, and think that's pretty standard.
This is just my feeling and obviously isn't scientific *but* didn't feel they gave me much nicotine, even the 24mg ones. Used to smoke Marlboro Lights which obviously aren't that strong but this feels weaker than them - could puff it more or less constantly without overdosing while 3 fags straight off made me feel icky.
Think anyone buying an e-fag expecting it to be just like smoking is in for a huge disappointment!!
Oh and they taste pretty c**p too!!
The "tobacco" flavour cartridges don't taste like any fag I've smoked and the "menthol" ones don't taste of much, definitely not like a menthol fag.
I used to use a Skycig when i was cutting down. The only flavour i liked was menthol but i found it so nice i was constantly sucking away on it. That's the main reason I've gone CT cos i knew that i would only replace fags for my Skycig!
I may be shot down in flames for this, and I should start by re-iterating that ANYTHING WHICH WORKS FOR YOU AS A MEANS TO QUITTING IS FINE, FINE, FINE. I am not passing judgement.
But.
As I've said before, the thing that is toughest to break when quitting is the habit of smoking. The hand-to-mouth. The reaching for a cig when you're feeling stressed. If you replace the fags with something that looks and feels as much like a cigarette as possible (and keeps the nicotene coming, to boot), then what part of your addiction is being broken? I can't help feeling that it would be that much easier to slip back into having a real one here and there.
I was in a play a few months into my quit where another actor was using a fake cigarette - not an e-cig, just a plastic thing with a red tip - and I was holding it, and mucking about pretending to smoke, and I was ASTONISHED by how much it reminded me of smoking, and brought on a whopping crave. I shudder to think what an e-cig would do to my psychological state, and just can't imagine using it as a quit aid.
However - to round off - if E-cigs work for you as a means to weaning yourself off the real thing, then go for it! 
H
I may be shot down in flames for this, and I should start by re-iterating that ANYTHING WHICH WORKS FOR YOU AS A MEANS TO QUITTING IS FINE, FINE, FINE. I am not passing judgement.
But.
As I've said before, the thing that is toughest to break when quitting is the habit of smoking. The hand-to-mouth. The reaching for a cig when you're feeling stressed. If you replace the fags with something that looks and feels as much like a cigarette as possible (and keeps the nicotene coming, to boot), then what part of your addiction is being broken? I can't help feeling that it would be that much easier to slip back into having a real one here and there.
I was in a play a few months into my quit where another actor was using a fake cigarette - not an e-cig, just a plastic thing with a red tip - and I was holding it, and mucking about pretending to smoke, and I was ASTONISHED by how much it reminded me of smoking, and brought on a whopping crave. I shudder to think what an e-cig would do to my psychological state, and just can't imagine using it as a quit aid.
However - to round off - if E-cigs work for you as a means to weaning yourself off the real thing, then go for it!
H
I agree with you Hells, and am a (soon to be ex) e-cig user.
I bought mine 'cos I was in a bad patch and it was literally that or fags but got it to use when I got a crave. Pretty soon, I was using it regularly, and got well addicted to it. Was leaning on the damn thing just like how I used to smoke real fags, and found it just as limiting in its own way.
Agree about using whatever to get off the real fags, but am very uneasy about e-cigs!!
Something I saw on the e-cig company I used to use's Facebook page disturbed me.
Apparently, parents have been buying their teenage kids e-cigs - the flavoured ones - because they're "cool"
Nic oTine has got his next generation of victims.
Have to say the company wasn't endorsing that, they say 18+ only and you should already be a smoker - but if parents are buying them for their kids what can you do?
I have to say my first emotion was astonishment, followed quickly by that "no no no no nooooo!" thing you get. Great promotion from a marketing perspective, and I hated it. Those fags, three bloomin foot long? Parents, imagine your kids crowding round it, attracted by the neon lights while you're carting your shopping back to the car. Shudder. 
I have no feeling about e-cigs, IMO if they help then fine, I think 99% of former smokers don't want to be a non-smoking nicotine addict so it's a means to an end.
This promotion however, I feel very strongly about, it shouldn't be allowed. Hate it.
Apparently, parents have been buying their teenage kids e-cigs - the flavoured ones - because they're "cool"
NO WAY. Really?! :eek: :eek: :eek:
I see E-cigs as an alternative to smoking rather than quitting, if it helps people get off nicotine then great but for most its simply a lifestyle choice, nicotine addiction isn't a positive thing IMO so on balance I'm not in favour of E-cigs as they just provide a different delivery system.
NO WAY. Really?! :eek: :eek: :eek:
That's what someone said on their FB page, she said it was pretty widespread where she lived, and I guess if they come in fruity flavours and so on they are going to be attractive to kids. Bit like alcopops when I was a teen 
Shocking, they are advocating a form of smoking - albeit without the additional chemicals!!!
Shocking, they are advocating a form of smoking - albeit without the additional chemicals!!!
At least not the same ones 
This is my thoughts on E-Cigs. Why would you use this as an alternative to stop smoking? You might as well just smoke cigarettes. At least tabacco grows naturally from the soil of the earth. Sure man puts chemicals in it to enhance give it flavor and so on, but at least it came from the earth. E-cigs in the other hand is 100% man made. The worst thing you can do is start inhaling something that is 100% man made. I can careless what man says is actually in it. If you do research on the internest and look at disclaimers there are numerous countries that ban the use of E-Cigs and want nothing to do with them. That tells you right that there is something they know about them that you don't! Also, That alone in itself should tell you one thing.....STAY AWAY FROM THEM! You think cigarettes are bad? I am no scientist, but I have no doubt in my mind these things are probally 1000x worst for you then a cig will ever be!
I can understand gum, candy, pills, patches and other stop smoking methods (by means of bloodstream)...But E-Cigs? (replacing cigs(natural) and inhaling E-Cigs(man made) into the lungs) That is going too far!
I am not promoting cigs, but I am 100% against replacing cigs with an e-cig. I'll take a cig over an e-cig any day!
I used an e-cig on and off for a few weeks and was quite shocked to find that I still suffered with a sore throat like I'd smoked a real fag. It did the job but didn't taste like a cigarette. I think that the ingredients list will be found to contain things that are just as bad as the real thing.
They're not good news in my eyes and just another money making scheme to keep people addicted.
They're not good news in my eyes and just another money making scheme to keep people addicted.
Which I can tell you works very well indeed
Don't think they're as bad as real fags (not much is TBH) but they're definitely not as safe and lovely as they're made out to be. A week and a bit after quitting mine I've got a cough that I think all of us here would recognise!!
Which I can tell you works very well indeed
Don't think they're as bad as real fags (not much is TBH) but they're definitely not as safe and lovely as they're made out to be. A week and a bit after quitting mine I've got a cough that I think all of us here would recognise!!
I agree. The basis for them (to be able to smoke freely without worrying about the health dangers) is great and an excellent money maker. But, like you say, there are signs that these things DO have an effect on us and i think it's the unknown that's most worrying. Hopefully they can at least get together a decent ingredients list so people know what they're smoking!
Tobacco-Been around on earth (millions and billions of years) even before mans existence on earth. Grows from the soil of the earth, and is natural! Have been researched and for centuries man knows the harmful effects and what it will do to you! Health-Risk are known!
ECig - Man made, haven't even been around on earth for even 00000000001% of earth existence. Unproven, and long term health risks are unknown! And lastly and more importantly there are countries that ban this stuff from entering their country! Think about it, these are entire government and countries that want nothing to do with this stuff! Common sense!
Enough said!
I agree. The basis for them (to be able to smoke freely without worrying about the health dangers) is great and an excellent money maker. But, like you say, there are signs that these things DO have an effect on us and i think it's the unknown that's most worrying. Hopefully they can at least get together a decent ingredients list so people know what they're smoking!
I'm sure they have an effect on us, it's odd but smoking a cigarette has never made me cough but those things definitely did - and it's a bit worrying that smoking it for a couple of months has made me cough now. :eek:
It's not all that long ago that fags were "safe" after all.
Oh Wow!
Wow, who woulda thought it!! 
