
Smoking cigarettes should be a thing of the past in my opinion. With the amount of knowledge we have about the negative effects from cigarettes, it is hard to believe that people keep smoking them when there are alternative options on the market. Now I must say that at no point in my life have I ever been addicted to cigarettes, although I have smoked my fair share, I have seen people I love struggle with the addiction my entire life. For me I just like the act of smoking something, blowing smoke rings and making me feel like a dragon letting out a big puff of smoke, but we live in an age where I can have the smoking sensation and not smell like an ashtray or run out of breath on the most menial of tasks. I'm talking about vaporizers.
Vaporizers are changing the game for smokers everywhere. They are not full of toxic chemicals that are found in cigarettes and offer a variety of flavors as well as choices of nicotine levels and no nicotine at all which is what I use. There are a few different ways you can go about smoking a vaporized cigarette (ecig), and all of them are more affordable than the obscene price that a pack of cigarettes cost. The two routes that I am going to discuss are the disposable vapes that you can get at a gas station or any convenience store and the vapes that are rechargeable and refillable.
For awhile, I was constantly buying the disposable ecigs, which cost around $10 a piece and are supposed to be the equivalent of 2 packs of cigarettes. The basic ones that you can find at most convenience stores come in two standard flavors, plain, and menthol. Menthol tastes as you would expect it too, much like a car freshener, while the plain ones I can liken to a light vanilla taste. Either option gives you a great puff of vapor to ease your cravings. Some brands last a couple of days; others are done in a few hours of use. Disposable ecigs are also being sold as "electronic hookahs", anyone who is familiar with hookah knows that there are some awesome flavors that can taste like peach or watermelon and every flavor in between, and the vaporizers do a pretty good job of emulating these flavors, definitely a better taste than the standard ashtray flavor of a cigarette. In our modern world though, new technology becomes obsolete very quickly.
Make way for the non-disposable ecigs, kind of like the ones that were sold in the malls for way too much money, the prices have dropped considerably and have made it an affordable alternative to smoking cigarettes, with many customized options. In fact, a new upscale vapor lounge opened on the Kirkwood Highway that specializes in relaxing with vaporizers, called Vape Escape, you can find their ad in this issue of LWM magazine for more information. Vape Escape offers you the opportunity to taste test a variety of flavors to put in their refillable vaporizers. Right now I am enjoying a flavor called "space jam" that tastes like a combination of strawberries and apples, and the vial it comes in costs around $15 and has lasted for over a month. For people switching from smoking cigarettes to vapes there are also varying levels of nicotine that you can choose from to help you gradually kick the habit.
Over the past month, I have had the opportunity to try out the "Smokio smart vaporizer", a rechargeable and revolutionary product for tracking your smoking habits. Touted as the first smart ecig, the Smokio connects via bluetooth to your smart phone to provide detailed information about your smoking habits. By measuring how many puffs a day you have taken, this smart vaporizer gives you the direct equivalent to how many cigarettes that would be. With this data, the app that runs on your smartphone is able to keep track of how much money you have saved by not smoking cigarettes. It also shows you on a map where you have been using your vaporizer, it is very interesting to see where my hot spots are for smoking, most of my vaping is done while in transit between places. During the writing of this article, I have taken 23 puffs from the Smokio, which it says is equivalent to 2 cigarettes. The app also tells me that since I have not smoked a cigarette in 24 days, I have saved $27 and have added 7 days to my life expectancy. Visit: www.smokio.com/#meet