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In 2007, I saw vaping for the first time; I tried a starter kit and, at that point, filed it as an interesting but not for me idea… Meanwhile, I carried on with 60/day.

In 2008, I revisited the idea, planning to use vaping where I could not smoke tobacco, and maybe as a hobby/interest as it was new tech, and as an engineer, it held some interest. It was still very new then; however, the lack of burning promised to eliminate at least some health issues. In March of 2009, I discovered that I had not spent money budgeted for tobacco; at least 4 weeks’ worth was still in my account, and that is how I found I had stopped smoking cigerettes. It took months, but vaping had slowly replaced tobacco, and I hadn’t even noticed.

It was a bit of a shock since I had previously tried everything, including fringe methods like hypnosis. I even tried the medications available (varenicline) at the time, ‘accidentally’ not letting the doctor know that mental health issues meant I really shouldn’t be taking it; I should have been more honest and less desperate to stop. I would strongly advise anyone to take care; it wasn’t good and was quite stupid. If a medicine is contraindicated, there is a good reason; don’t try to bypass that.

Around 2010, the rapid consumer-driven development of products that worked better for those switching from cigarettes started, and adults began creating flavours that had nothing to do with tobacco; as it turns out, that is great if you no longer wish to be reminded of burning tobacco. Many of the flavours are reminders of childhood, and almost all the sweet-inspired ones are of things from times past. A few are still around, but many aren’t. The claims of child-attracting flavours are false, which wasn’t even on the folks' minds early on. Humans like flavours, and from around 2 years up, there is no profile to target a particular age. ‘Won’t someone think of the children’ is a known manipulation tactic, however, designed to bypass logic, with the strong urge to protect the young.

2010 is when I started thinking of passing on the gift of vaping to those who couldn’t or wouldn’t stop burning tobacco. It was also the year my father died. I also advocate in his memory, vaping was too late for him, and he died of cancer from a 20/day habit. He was a fireman who lived to save lives and help folks, saving people from burning buildings. I aim to save some lives in his memory, too; it seems fitting.

Having seen harm reduced in person and myself, it seems reasonable to support in other areas since if harm cannot be eliminated (as such, nothing in life is entirely risk-free), it should be reduced as far as possible. Even if it is a small step in reduction, that can make all the difference in keeping someone alive long enough to take another step to reduce harm further.

That covers the intro to advocacy and is good practice for writing in a longer format. Hopefully, it is also of interest to anyone wondering why this…