To cut down or give up?

To cut down or give up? That is today’s question. On Monday when I started using the skycig, I had roughly 10g of tobacco, or just less than a day’s worth.  It is now Thursday and I have none left, I am quite proud of myself for making it this far on such a small amount of tobacco, without too much effort, but do I go and get some more or just try to stop altogether?

To the non smokers amongst you, I presume this is a fairly straight forward question but to a helpless addict, like me, it is a huge decision. On a positive note, it is a decision that I never thought I would be contemplating at this early stage.

I still have a few issues with skycig, firstly; why do they insist on giving you medium strength cartridges with the starter pack? It’s not just skycig though, I did a lot of research into electronic cigarettes before embarking down this road and they all seem to, only, offer medium strength cartridges with the starter packs. I had the foresight to order an extra pack of the full strength cartridges and thank god I did, because if I hadn’t I would not have been making this decision at all today, at best, I would have been telling you that they are ok if you want to cut down and, at worst, they are useless.  You see, these medium strength things are a bit like smoking silk cut.  How come, the last person to have cigarettes at any party was always the numpty with Silk Cut? At this point you had a few options: Option one, you had usually already be considering, get the skins out and raid the ashtrays; option two, accept the kind offer of the silk cut, get the skins out and break up the cigarette, usually good for two or three roll ups; option three, accept the silk cut and get skins out, rip the glue bit off, lick it and wrap it round those stupid holes in the filter; option four, hall your hung-over ass out to the nearest shop and get some baccy. I’m rambling, where was I? Oh yes, issues with electronic cigarettes, sort of covered a couple there but here is another thing. Thirty cigarettes, that’s what every manufacturer of electronic cigarettes claim that each cartridge is the equivalent to. Let’s stick with skycig, comes in three strengths: Bold, 16mg; regular, 12mg and light, 6mg. Let me do the math for you here, skycig, average cigarette contains 0.8mg of nicotine, that means Bold equivalent to TWENTY cigarettes, regular = 15 and light = 7.5. Why lie? What’s the point, as a smoker, I am predisposed to be mistrustful of anything that claims to replace cigarettes, so why make it harder to trust a product with false claims. I think it is to try and back up that claim that they are 75% cheaper than cigarettes. Well they aren’t so stop lying and no, Cindy, I am not going to use this as a feeble excuse to go buy some cigarettes, they are about 60% cheaper after all and about 30% cheaper than tobacco.

This photo shouldn't really be here should it, well I like it and it might be one of the last photos you see of me with a fag in my mouth.

I’m a bit grumpy today, can you tell, but I’m enjoying life without that nagging cough, I am enjoying the reawakening of my taste buds and being able to smell, although I have now realised how much this room smells of stale smoke. Going to invest the money that would have gone on cigarettes today in some air-fresheners, to try and sort that out and I’ll get back to you all soon.