HAMLET TO NICORETTE

Hamlet's line, "there's special providence in the fall of a sparrow," relates well to courage and originates from a Biblical passage in the Book of Mark (read on, this is certainly not a sermon). relating an external force to the fate of any venture, decision, or action- be it successful or failure. 

The course of vaping is in providential hands, and the proponents courageous people who walk forward into a battle that has already been declared by many as a resurgence of the Big Tobacco (BT) experiences of years back.   BT was "busted" for suppressing data showing the harms of smoking and all of tobacco was guilty by association and became the scapegoat for all society's ills.   The fall of BT's image after non-disclosure and frank suppression of data is possibly the greatest act of providence, we as vapors, have in our corner.

The ultimate result of the repugnant acts of BT was a mantra that has been repeated for our entire lives, tobacco is bad in any form. A fictional expo As a result we came to believe that the tobacco plant was inherently "unhealthy" and anyone who would use it (Einstein, Lincoln, Twain, the Kennedy's and J. R. R. Tolkien spring to mind) must be stupid, rebellious, evil, dirty, subhumans deserving a slow painful death after years of cancer and heart and lung disease. The smoker was a bane to society, exponentially increasing health care costs, spewing secondary smoke on our beloved children and polluting the earth with the byproducts of tobacco use, specifically filters that won't degrade and the clinging residue of the smoke that layers itself over surfaces.  


But amazingly, the TRUTH has been sitting in plain sight for decades: At least 99% of the harms and risks and nuisances and deaths and diseases that are in any way related to tobacco use can be directly attributed to the direct or indirect hazards and byproducts of combustion.

 In our community there is an open dialogue of this sort that leaves our comments and data open to public scrutiny. Even before the BT fall from grace, tobacco was seen in a negative light. Mark Twain wrote multiple lines about his experience with tobacco- far before the PM and other companies were even in the sights of the public. What we must realize was said well months ago by Sam Munro when he stated that he still considered himself a smoker. There is no shame in any label one places on oneself or is placed on one by others. Nor is there ant problem with taking the stand strongly that, "I am not a smoker, I vape." It is your internal frame of refeence, and your internal perception of vaping and smoking that is important individually. To consider yourself an ex-smoker when you are vaping is totally correct, to consider yourself a smoker when you only vape is also totally correct. There is a dualistic truth in this concept that is that special providence, that courage. The external world has already moved, if only slightly to see the difference. This is complicated by the visual similarities of smoking and vaping. The important idea here for my own perception is that time will be the test of the outcome of vaping and that we are the pioneers of this practice. It is not my business or care of your perception of whether vaping is a replacement, a change from or a separate form of smoking. What is important is transparency. What is important is that the true difference between the two be validated and spread widely. What is important is that there be unity among vapors in the eyes of the public.


This is not snake oil, it is a real and viable means of harm reduction when using nicotine. It is personal choice on how one obtains nicotine (smoking, gum, vaping), but it is not necessary to potentially argue over the terms we as vapors use to describe ourselves. the providential direction will be that of our work and our belief in the cause- evangelism through personal stories and the conveyance to others of our experience in the manner that Jesus (not preaching) sent forth his believers in small groups to share the message. So when someone says- I didn't know you smoked I reply, I don't- I vape. And from there the discussion and the teaching and the message evolves and is spread. Peace-vape on.