Electronic Cigarettes: An alternative or a solution?

I have seen a few articles over the last couple of months from journalists stating that electronic cigarettes do not address the issue of smoking, they simply replace one addiction with another. These articles all stress their concerns about smokers switching to electronic cigarettes to quit smoking but instead they end up replacing the cigarettes with electronic cigarettes and never actually quit. Well, electronic cigarettes are not sold as a smoking cessation device, they are sold as a smoking alternative. The fact is, most people smoke because they enjoy smoking. It is true that nicotine is addictive and that smokers will struggle to quit because of this but in much the same way that an obese person becomes addicted to sugar. Most diets fail because although most dieters want to be skinny, the truth is they want chocolate cake more! It isn't until they decide they want to be skinny more that the diet will be successful, and the same is true with smokers, when they truly decide they don't want to smoke they'll have the power to quit. So what happens when you want to continue smoking but you're concerned about the health problems associated with smoking? You look for an alternative of course! Electronic Cigarettes offer just that alternative. Electronic Cigarettes are designed to minic the smoking experience, ticking all the boxes required by the smoker such as something to hold, something to put in their mouth, something that looks similar to cigarette smoke and most importantly the flavour and nicotine hit. A conversation yesterday with a smoker and research online showed that smokers don't even necessarily like the taste of cigarettes. The taste was compared to a burnt shoe by several people and the dizziness experienced made me wonder why someone would even choose to smoke. One answer is that smoking offers something psychological. Smoking is social. On a daily basis we see groups of women standing outside the office next to ours having a cigarette and a chat about The X Factor or who's going out with who now. At various stages of a meal out, friends disappear in small groups for a cigarette and a chat. Unlike other types of nicotine alternatives, electronic cigarettes also provide this social interaction. You don't have to search far online to see forums with 1000's of vapers. These online communities discuss the latest makes and models of electronic cigarettes, who's using which e juice, what's going on in the world of electronic cigarettes and just general chat. In the real world, you don't have to stand in public for long with an electronic cigarette before someone starts a conversation. Smoking is also a stress reliever. When a smoker is stressed, they take a cigarette break, not only does this give them a chance to calm down, the nicotine in the cigarette also releases chemicals in the brain that makes them feel good. Electronic cigarettes also provide this. If a smoker is looking to continue smoking but reduce the harm caused by tobacco, electronic cigarettes are the perfect alternative. They also let the smoker experience all the benefits of smoking but in a wider range of flavours (so you can move away from burnt shoe flavour is you choose!). Just because someone is using an electronic cigarette, don't necessarily presume they are trying to quit and failing. Electronic cigarettes may often be used for quitting smoking but they are not a quitting smoking solution, rather they are a harm reduction solution. Litejoy Electronic Cigarettes   Image courtesy of mack2happy/FreeDigitalPhotos.net