Amazing Logic

I recently ran across an article on the USA Today website titled Program urges smokers switch to smokeless tobacco.  I think it’s pretty obvious where I stand on this particular article so I won’t bother you with my thoughts on the “Switch and Quit” program director Brad Rodu who I think shouldn’t be allowed to continue practicing or teaching this garbage (oops… did I say that out loud?)

This is pretty typical of the “harm reduction” crowd where they’ll site all kinds of studies, non-studies, etc. to get their point across.  You can see more of this type of “discussion” on this post.  But I digress.

What really motivated me to write this post was some of the comment on the article itself.  User “Man in the Middle” had this to say:

I quit using the e-cigarette.

I started out at 8mg. of nicotine, then walked it down to 0mg. over a few month until I was just smoking tobacco flavored water, and the chemical that they use in fog machines, which has been proven not to be harmful to humans.

I still have an urge for the e-cigarette sometimes because half of the addiction to smoking is the irritation on the throat. For some reason, humans get addicted to irritants on the throat. It;s similar to how people get addicted to the inhaler puffer things.

I’ve been carbon-monoxide and tar & nicotine free for over a year now, and I FEEL GREAT! Getting the tar out was the biggest thing that made me feel a lot better. Woo-hoo!

While I’m not a huge fan of NRTs (in this case the e-cig) I’ll give MAD PROPS to this guy for being free.  He’s nic and tobacco free and has been for over a year.  Well done sir!

Then along wanders this guy (username ZoSo15) and restores my faith in humanity (Please note my sarcasm…)

Congratulations, man. I just passed my two year anniversary of quitting cigarettes thanks to my e-cig. Unlike you, I’m still addicted to the nicotine but that’s fine with me.

It’s actually become somewhat of a hobby of mine, haha. I still have all the health benefits of quitting smoking, I just have a nicotine addiction. But on it’s own, nicotine is just a mild stimulant similar to caffeine. And I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t see myself quitting any time soon.

It’d be nice if the FDA would get on our side, but alas, they are just another government entity being controlled by big corporations.

Occupy.

Sigh.  I won’t get into all of the reasons that “occupy” has become nothing more than a punch line.  What I will say is I feel bad for this dude.  I have no problem with him being addicted to nicotine.  I’m not one of the “You must quit or you’re going to die,” crowd.  Everyone must come to their decision to quit on their own.  But I do feel bad for this guy.  He honestly thinks that a nicotine addiction is something akin to caffeine.  As far as I know, caffeine isn’t toxic, can’t cause intoxication, cancer or death, doesn’t increase the rate of birth defects or increase blood pressure.  But what do I  know… I’m just a quitter.