I'd Like To Kick A Few Butts

3/15/2017

Happy #IKickButts Day! A day where our youth are encouraged to not smoke and to take a stand against "Big Tobacco". Kid's, you should listen....

Don't Smoke!!!

While we're on a butt kicking theme, this great-grandma would also like to kick some butts. You see, at 58 years old, I'm the OLDEST person in my Mom's family. All who came before me are gone, most of them smoked or had lives filled with second hand smoke. Smoking has even tried to take out younger members of my family. My son had a heart attack at 29 years old, thanks to smoking.

I quit smoking 2 years ago. I smoked for over 40 years & tried to quit smoking on and off for over 20 years, yes twenty years. I tried every method known to man. Those recommended by my doctor, by the FDA, by google, by friends, by quit lines, I've been hypnotized, criticized, chastised, and baptized with the hate and lack of compassion of the anti-tobacco community. I've tried patches, gum, lozenges, cold turkey, sucking candy, praying, medications, talking, and anything else I could think of. For over 20 years, I was a failure and at each failure, I became less motivated to quit, because I really believed I couldn't quit. 

You'd think that now that I'm an ex-smoker, the anti-tobacco community would embrace me, congratulate me, use me as the old lady poster child to prove anyone can quit. Alas, they look the other way, I am still scorned and hated. I'm still not good enough for them. I advocate heavily for people to quit smoking. You'd think the anti-tobacco community, all those health organizations and public health zealots and I would now be on the same team, out to save #ABillionLives who will die in the next century from smoking.

But here I sit, alone. Nothing more than a leper in the anti-tobacco community. To them, I'm worthless, I am an embarrassment to them. They like to call me names. Accuse this toothless old lady of being big tobacco, accuse people like me of marketing to children, and say I'm doing nothing more than making a buck and trying to addict the next generation to smoking!

What horrendous "sin" have I committed to be looked down upon by the Anti-Tobacco Community? I'm a vaper. I used an e-cig to help me quit 

smoking. That is my crime.

So, dear Anti-Tobacco people, I'd really like to kick YOUR butt. I'd like to call you out right here and now for making a huge mistake that could cost millions, maybe even a billion people their lives. I am NOT big tobacco, the work I do I do for FREE so I'm obviously not trying to make a buck, I want to not only SAVE children from smoking / tobacco, - I want to save all the adults in their lives, so that kids can grow up with extended / active / and healthy families.

I am a mixologist. I create and make e-liquid for a very small company. It is my son's company, the son that almost died from a heart attack 3 years ago. He quit smoking and he helped me quit smoking. And now we both work 7 days a week to help others quit smoking. I refuse a paycheck for these efforts. I have a job I work at overnight, so do not need a paycheck for trying to save lives. I have created several flavors in the past 2 years. I've given careful thought and consideration to what would appeal to the adult customers that buy my son's liquids at their local vape shops.  It has never crossed my mind to consider a flavor that would appeal to a child. When the ANTZ (Anti-Nicotine-Tobacco-Zealots) accuse me of creating flavors to market to a child, I am deeply insulted. How dare you pervert my efforts to save lives into some evil plot where you try to make it sound like I'm trying to destroy lives? My efforts to save lives has given me the opportunity to meet hundreds of others trying to do the same thing. We make liquids, we sell equipment, we give people hope that they can quit smoking just like all of us did. We know, vaping is NOT smoking. We know we are saving lives. 

How many more lives could YOU save, if you joined our team instead of lying and treating us like we are the enemy? I'd so much rather be working for the same cause, instead of sitting here feeling the need to kick YOUR butt.

#IKickButts