Hello everyone! So last month I finally got a desktop vape. My MFLB was doing a cracking job, but I always wanted a big bad boy. The reason being I wanted to be able to share the vape with my friends easily without having to teach them how to do it properly. I ended up settling on the extreme Q, it's great for my needs, and I am LOVING it. The flavour is incredible and it's really pushed me to stop smoking weed, and vaping instead. Over the past couple of years I've been trying to stop smoking tobacco and weed, with cigarettes being the main culprit. Over time I have told myself every time I smoked 'this is disgusting and I hate it!'. By doing this I actually don't smoke cigarettes any more. If I go to a party or to the pub I take my kangertech subox mini for cigarettes. Much much more enjoyable than yucky fags. I still use nicotine replacement therapy too as I try not to use the e cig unless i'm out drinking. it's a bit too close to smoking for my liking now lol. However! I have always smoked joints in the UK with tobacco. Over the past year I took at least 3 months off smoking everything altogether. This break really let me see how fuggy my mind actually was and how the weed was preventing me from curing my mental health issues. My councillor said I shouldn't smoke as it stops me from recovering. Well I did, but I realised that I need some weed in my life. It, combined with SSRIS and counselling has wiped the floor with my depression. I think I genuinely just love weed. I'm probably addicted, but at the same time it feels like medicine to me. I do think I am addicted to joints though. And unfortunatley I have been smoking a lot of joints. This makes me paranoid. I have a very bad cough and I'm only 22. I really want to be fully off smoking forever. However, the other night I had a few drinks, and ended up smoking ABV joints. It didn't occur to me at the time to just re vape it. My question is, does this occasional 'accidental' joint effect my lungs healing? I decided to pack in the joints and stick to the vape on Saturday night. I've smoked about 3 tobacco joints since then. That is good for me. I do feel much healthier than when I was smoking cigarettes, but I hate having a disgusting cough and I really feel that moving to permanently vaping would be good. However, I don't want my little accidents to reverse the whole healing process. I know in my heart I'll probably end up smoking joints again but I don't even like the taste now. It's just when i'm under the influence of other substances. Sober, I don't want any unless I'm perhaps out and my friend casually offers one. But again that is still smoking!!
I've been fighting the same battle over the last couple of years. I've gone through periods where I have vaped exclusively for months at a time, perios where I have smoked fags and joints and not vaped at all, and everything in between. Left to my own devices, I could quite happily vape 100% of the time. The two triggers for me really are smoking fags when I go to the pu and I've had a couple of beers, and smoking joints when one or two of my friends come round at weekend. I have found a very biscuity, custard flavour vape that seems to go well with beer, so I'm doing pretty good in the pub using that rather than smoking fags. Ideally, I think my perfect solution would be to not smoke cigarettes at all (I only really fell into the trap of smoking cigarettes as a by-product of smoking weed really. For the first 5 years I only smoked spliffs and not cigs). And just to have a smoke once a week when my friends come round. I actually managed to stick to this for a while, and only smoking once a week seemed to have a very minimal effect on the benefits I was seeing from not smoking anymore - I wouldn't really have a bad cough the next day, my sense of smell and taste was still much better than when I smoke full time. The trouble with trying to stick to once a week is that I have no willpower. Once I have that packet of fags and Raw papers left over from the Friday night, I tend to think 'Oh I'll just have a smoke on Saturday night too', which then becomes 'oh I'll just finish the pack on Sunday' which quickly becomes 'oh I'll just smoke spliffs this week untl next weekend, then I'll stop' and becomes a downward spiral. At this point I'm thinking I have two options - to either get some willpower and stick to vaping, or maybe give my stash of cigs and papers to one of my friends who comes round, and ask if they will keep it with their smoking stash and just bring it round for me when they come for a Friday night smoke, then take it away with them again until the next week. TLR - only smoking once or twice a week, for me, seemed to have minimal negative effects. Everything in moderation I would say. It may slow down the healing of your lungs, but your lungs will still be FAR healthier than smoking full time.
Thanks for the reply! Yes it sounds like we are in the same boat. I was out partying last night and I smoked some cigarettes. I did not enjoy them at all. I think I much prefer vaping in every way now. It's sad that everybody thinks smoking is better when it comes to weed. It's nowhere near as good, and makes me feel bad. Since deciding to pap the fags my bf and friends will just puff on the vape with me. I don't think they would buy one but if they can even just vape and not smoke when they are with me then its better than nothing. Just waiting to get enough abv to make some kickass oil. I will get there with the cigarettes. The main problem is when I start telling myself I can't do something, I just want to do it more!
Cigarettes I can take or leave these days, it's more about the habit to me than the nicotine. All the juice I vape is 0% nicotine. I just like the flavour, and taking some time out; something relaxing about the slow inhale and blowing out a cloud. So vaping cures that itch very well. I had a good night last night though, had 2 of my friends round, both were smoking joints, and I stuck to my vape all night. The best bit is, I only put one well filled bowl in my MFLB and that much weed lasted me all night and got me very nicely baked. It's almost unbelievable how much you waste by burning it. Imagine if I'd only ever vaped my weed over the last 16 years instead of smoking it?! And the best bit is that bud is now in my ABV jar ready to get me high again another time. All that from a single spliffs worth of weed. I think that in itself should be enough of a motivator for me to vape pretty much all the time. Anyway, I would say don't beat yourself up if you do slip and have the occasional fag or spliff, instead you should congratulate yourself and think about how many cigs and spliffs you have managed to avoid by vaping. Focus on the positive and do what makes you happy. You'll get there.