Hawaii state legislature put forth a bill last week with the intention of banning electronic cigarette sales to minors. At The SafeCig, we are happy to support any legislature that prohibits those who are under legal age from acquiring any product containing nicotine. However, the bill in question aims to classify electronic cigarettes and accessories as a tobacco product and impose a 70% tax on those items.

A petition has been created at Change.org to request the Governor of Hawaii to reconsider this bill as it is written.

Rather than conducting the necessary research to create a specific classification of the product and applying a fair tax policy for it, Hawaii's state legislature is merely attempting to classify the product as tobacco and apply the egregious tax rates that are applied to tobacco to electronic cigarettes too. Levying this hefty of a tax on the product would virtually wipe out any local vendors as they would not be able to compete with their out-of-state and international counterparts that are not subject to this unfair tax.

Customers would then be forced to buy their products from vendors out-of-state on the internet, or put down their ecigs and return to smoking again.  Any and all local vendors would either be forced to relocate their operations to another state or face closure due to the competitive disadvantage that would be placed on them.

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Finding information on why one should quit smoking is not hard to do. With so many harmful ingredients in cigarettes and so many detrimental side effects from it, it seems that finding a reason to initiate smoking would be difficult; however, the tobacco industry is finding new customers every single day [...]

We had a guest post submitted and published on our blog a little over two years ago. This post is still relevant today and is being shared again.

For most people, Mom’s house is the place you go for a retreat. It’s the one place that feels different than anywhere else, and where you go to relive memories. When you leave Mom’s house, you leave with a heart full of love, head full of memories, and arms filled with bags of food. For me, I end up leaving my mother’s house with one extra not-so-appreciated gift – clothes reeking of smoke. Continue Reading

Everyone sees you as a risk, expense, or questionably productive.

It's no secret that insurance rates are lower for non-smokers. In 1983 health-care coverage was modestly estimated at $300 less per year less for those who opted for the hale and hearty route not to light up. Some insurance companies even offer up to a 45% discount on term-life coverage premiums too. Many American citizens receive insurance coverage from their employers and these companies have begun to notice this and several other ways that smokers are costing them big bucks each year.

The health-care cost is an obvious elevated expense but who would have thought that smokers could have a negative impact on workplace morale also? On average, smokers miss about 50% more work than nonsmokers, leaving the healthy workers to pick up their slack. The Dow Chemical Company found that, in 1974, smokers were absent 5.5 days more per year. Not only did this mean that temporary replacements were needed on these days but productivity shows a decline as well. Continue Reading

Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette. This is our final post of entries received.

Entry 15 from Jonathan W.

The event that made me try an electronic cigarette would have to be the death of my Father, who died of lung cancer a year ago. He was a smoker for 26 years and half of the people in my family are also smokers. I did not want to have the same fate of my father or the other millions of people who have died because of cigarette smoking. So therefore I decided to be proactive and change my mindset of traditional cigarettes. Now I am 6 months cigarette free and loving it. Plus the Safe Cig is an amazing help. Continue Reading

Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette.

Entry 14 from Brandon

When I was 12 years old, my father was diagnosed with cancer, mainly caused by smoking. He was a 25 year smoker, and finally it had caught up with him, the worst of the worst, it could cost him his life. After many doctor appointments and a successful surgery, he could proudly say that he had defeated cancer, and vowed to never smoke a cigarette again. When I was 14 years old, I began hanging out with the wrong crowd, and soon enough, a little peer pressure and the "need to fit in", coerced me to try my first ever cigarette.  Continue Reading

Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette.

Entry 13 from Steve

I started smoking when I was 17...way back in the 1960's. After I was married and had twin boys, I finally quit in 1989.  For reasons I still don't understand, I started again in 2007 and soon was up to nearly two pack per day. This was especially stupid because in 1999, I had a triple bypass and artificial heart valve installed.  My internist and cardiologist told me recently I HAD to quit. Smoking was not an option if I wanted to live.  The toxins in the smoke were causing me early COPD and chronic bronchitis, atrial fibrillation, and the carbon monoxide in smoke was damaging things by reducing the oxygen my heart was getting. First I tried the gum...no dice. It caused stomach problems and esophogeal reflux. Next was the patch.  That might as well have been pieces of tape for all the good it did.   Then my son showed me his ecig.  It looked like a promising thing, but looked like a hassle. There was a button you had to push and hold to heat it up and it had to be just right. There were three pieces.  A battery, atomizer and cartridge that you put liquid in.  I saw how he had to boil one thing clean, put drops in the cartridge that would sometimes then make liquid come out into your mouth and I wondered how on earth you could control the nicotine content. Continue Reading

Electronic cigarettes by The SafeCig are a two-piece design.

The first piece is a rechargeable battery that has a light at one end and a connection screw on the other. The second part is a disposable cartridge that twists into the battery. The cartridge contains a liquid solution with nicotine that is warmed by the battery to produce vapor when a person draws upon the eCig. The solution contains no tobacco and does not burn like traditional cigarettes. The vapor, when exhaled, resembles cigarette smoke with no foul smell.

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Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette.

Entry 11 from Lori

The reason I tried to quite smoking with electronic cigarettes is because I like to smoke more than I have an addiction to nicotine.  Using the Safecig gives me the calming feeling I like when smoking a cigarette.  I have tried other electronic cigarettes in the past, but none of them last as long or taste as real to me as the Safecig does.  I have tried to quite smoking many different times through the years without being able to continue not smoking until I found Safecig.  The main reason for quiting for me is my mother is in a respiratory care clinic at this time with severe COPD and EMPHYSEMA because of many years of smoking.  It is very hard to go to the hospital everyday and see her on a ventilator because of smoking.  I have a son who is 18 years old who I do not want to have to visit me like I am having to visit my mother, also I do not want to cause harm to my husband or child with second hand smoke because of my nasty habit.  I hope to continue my success with Safecig in the future. Continue Reading

Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette.

Entry 9 from Sallie

I tried an electronic cig about eight years ago at a kiosk in a mall. I thought "WOW" I think I could quit with one of those. I put it off because I didn't want to buy something and not have it work. I tried the patch, lozenges, meds and nicotine gum. None of these worked. I actually had body aches and pains from withdraw.

My husband who was also a smoker had a medical scare when a spot was found on his lung. He had a biopsy which thankfully turned out not to be Cancer. He quit cold turkey. It was enough of a scare for me to say this is my sign. I remembered those e-cigs in the mall and decided to take the leap. I ordered from a different company at first and was not happy with it. I was determined to make this a success and went on the computer and saw a site for The safe cig. I ordered a kit and loved it. I haven't smoked a real smoke in 15 months. I didn't have the pains of withdraw either. Continue Reading