Your Right to Choose Electronic Cigarettes is Being Challenged

February 21st, 2012 | Posted by Smokee News in E-Cig Brand News - (0 Comments)

Here is a scary post from Blu Cigs discussing legislation in the works to limit or end your ability to purchase electronic cigarettes. Recently SmokeE.com protested SOPA by going dark on January 18th. Lets hope that these new bills don’t get that far.  We respect that electronic cigarettes need to be regulated but we hope that the US government will allow us to self regulate.

“For the first time in the long recorded history of smoking, there is an alternative to tobacco.  No longer is the smoker restricted to the choice of a tobacco product. No – instead, because electronic cigarettes offer the same sensation and feel of a traditional tobacco cigarette, the public finally has another choice – albeit one that comes in a smokeless, odorless and ashless form.

Challenges Facing the Electronic Cigarette Revolution

It should be noted that this right to choose is being challenged. From misinformed lawmakers to scared big tobacco companies, actions are being made to limit the sell and use of electronic cigarettes. Lawmakers and tobacco lobbyists have seemingly made it their crusade to stop the use of electronic cigarettes, and in turn take away your right to choose.

As an e-cigarette user, you have a right to know about the bills that are being proposed, passed, and thankfully, challenged around the country.
From proposed bans based on inconclusive or incomplete data in Utah to unfair and biased attacks claiming that e-cigarettes are aimed at children, the popular thing to do seems to be to bury the e-cig revolution before it has a chance to take root.

Success Lies with You

This is why it is important to note that just like any successful revolution, the responsibility for the  future of the e-cig rests squarely on the
shoulder of the individual. So stay informed. Visit sites like CASA or your favorite E-cigarette Brand’s News Feed. Write your congressman. And if you hear of proposed bills that you think the rest of the e-cig community needs to be aware of, share it with us and let us know.”

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Hawaii Proposes 70% E-Cig Tax

February 8th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Smokee Blog - (2 Comments)

Seriously people… in Hawaii?  Apparently the same state that brought you Alvin Wong, the happiest man on earth now has the goal of crushing e-cigs with a 70% sales tax.  Clearly someone is worried about the bottom line over there with all the E-cig defectors.  Don’t they make enough money on tourism?

Honolulu Magazine posted an article today entitled “State Proposes Absurd Tax on Electronic Cigarettes”.  This article discusses the insane proposition of hitting e-cigs with taxes like regular smokes.  It just brings up yet again just how crazy “sin” taxes are. I discussed in my previous article on saving money with E-Cigs by avoiding taxes.  While I expected the sleeping giants to awake and realize they were loosing money, I did not expect this to hit so soon.

I am not familiar with any e-cig companies based in Hawaii and given the logistics of shipping everything from Hawaii, I doubt there are.  If they do implement the tax, it will most likely only impact local sales and not affect online shipments.  There has been a lot of talk about the states putting an end to tax-free Internet sales of products across the board, but that has yet to be seen.

For the moment lets just hope that this gets politically crushed here and does not start the domino rally of other states.

Perhaps we will have to add the state of each e-cig company that we review on our site.

 

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An E-Cig for the One You Love?

February 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

E-cig HeartWith Valentine’s day coming up every attached person on the hook for figuring out what to do and what to buy. You have got to love the commercial holidays. While I respect that there are a lot of configurations of couples in the world, I am going to write this from my perspective. .. the guy trying to do the right thing. :)

My proposed question is if you are a guy dating a smoking woman, or perhaps you both smoke, is Valentines day the time to buy an electronic cigarette kit for the woman you love. It seems like there is a lot of press releases and bloggers out there touting “yes, get your loved on and e-cig for Valentine’s day”. On the surface this seems like a good idea. There are health benefits for her him. Saving money in the long run is still never a bad idea. You can read more about that in my post here.
While on the surface this seems like a great idea, you should probably have the conversation first. You should especially vet this out beforehand if you have not been dating all that long. You don’t want the gift to say “Hey you stink, her is an e-cig” (even though that may be what you mean). Don’t be a dork though and list out all the pros of electronic cigarettes.
Once you have the nod from your lady, have a look at the reviews that you can find online. Search out the best deal and go for it. Making and informed and smart decision is always key.
For reviews on the best electronic cigarettes online, have a look at SmokeE.com. Keep an eye out for the best rebate program on the web, coming soon to smokee.com.

Update: 2/6/2012 – Checking over my Facebook feed, I see that Eversmoke is pushing their premium starter kit. Check out our review page on SmokeE.com for Eversmoke to see what our users are saying.

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Lies, Damn Lies and Infographics

February 1st, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in E-Cig Brand News - (0 Comments)

As if the world didn’t have enough infographics in magazines, there has been an unending flow of these little gems pushing everything imaginable from products to political agendas. Many of them can be picked apart if you get a good look at that stats and see how everything adds up.

In spite of my opinion on Infographics, Blu has recently put out an infographic that I can get behind.  This builds upon one of our recent posts that explain the tax money that can be saved by making the switch from conventional cigs to e-cigs.

http://www.smokee.com/save-on-cigarette-taxes/

Have a look at the infographic on the right.  It takes am even more conservative approach on the savings that can be had by making the switch.

Here is what Blu has to say for themselves…

“blu is an innovator and the leading provider of electronic cigarettes in the U.S., offering an alternative to smoking. blu’s high-tech “e-cigs” look and feel just like traditional cigarettes – without the smoke, smell and ash. blu eCigs are battery-operated – creating a smoke-free vapor “puff” that evaporates within seconds. blu Cigs are available in convenient disposables or rechargeable packs for continuous daily use, with or without nicotine and in a variety of flavors. blu eCigs have been featured in the presenter gift bags at the Grammy Awards and other celebrity events, and are used by a number of A-list actors, musicians, and athletes. Based in Charlotte, NC – at the heart of tobacco road – blu eCigs is the only e-cigarette provider whose ingestible contents are 100% made in the USA. For more, visit www.blucigs.com.”

Remember to visit Smokee.com for the best electronic cigarettes on the web.

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Electronic Cigarettes and Children

January 31st, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Smokee Blog - (6 Comments)

Clearly kids smoking anything is a bad idea.  Also, clearly I am not talking about little kids like the little guy to the right here.  However, electronic cigarettes bring up an interesting new issue.  How do you handle a product that is not a tobacco product and does not always contain nicotine?

On one side of the argument, we have a device that functionally creates flavored water vapor. It comes in all kinds of kid friendly flavors like “Very Vanilla”, “Cherry Crush” and”Peppermint Party”.  When look at it from this narrow perspective, it is really not a big deal to let kids enjoy vaping the non-nicotine cartridges. But that is jsut crazy talk.

We all know where this goes.  It is a slippery slope from sticking a vaporizer that is shaped like a cigarette in your mouth to upgrading to cartridges with nicotine.  E-Cigs are fine for adults that know they are hooked up on nicotine, but clearly the world does not need any new nicotine addicts, especially young ones.

It is going to be interesting to see how this shakes out, many of the states in the US are pushing bills in an attempt to stop underage e-cig smoking the the way that regular tobacco cigarette smokers are banned.  Specifically Idaho is working on passing a bill.

“E-cigarettes are marketed with flavorings, he said, as “an enticement to get children to start smoking.” He called the bill “a first attempt … to regulate the sales of these so they don’t get to minors.” - Rep. Bob Nonini

“Rep. Sue Chew, D-Boise, noted that a clause in the bill requires any mail-ordered electronic cigarette purchased on a credit or debit card to be shipped only to the address of record of the cardholder, as part of its age-verification requirements.” Clearly this is a non-perfect first step, but a step in the right direction none the less.

Here are a few links to further your research:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/jan/30/idaho-bill-would-ban-e-cigarettes-kids/

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/09/16/your-kids-buy-e-cigs-do-you-know-whats-in-them/

Please share your ideas and opinions with us in the comments below. For those of you that are clearly of age and are considering a switch to e-cigarettes, please have a look at our review site @ smokee.com for the best electronic cigarettes.

 

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It is Tax Time Again, Save Money With E-Cigs

January 30th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee News in Smokee Blog - (0 Comments)

So it is that time of year again where you start stressing out about Taxes in the United States.  Did you pay too much, pay too little?  Does the IRS think you paid too little? One thing that we can all agree on is that no one likes taxes or tax time (if only for the process). So stack up those W2s and head over to your friendly accountant or website to get that done.

Looking at your return you know exactly how much you paid the feds and the state.  Well that is not the whole story.  You still pay sales tax to your state and even more so if you smoke regular cigarettes. In my home state of New York ,the cigarette taxes are INSANE. At the bottom of this article there is a table by state of the taxes on conventional cigarettes.

As a little exercise, let me work out what a typical smoker would pay in cigarette taxes in a year in that great state of New York. This is most likely worse in New York City.  I am goign to make some assumptions.

1 Pack a day, every day * 365 days * $4.35 =  $1587.75

To that is $1587.75 in extra taxes just for the average tobacco cigarette smokers of New York.

Now if we take that another logical step, how about the price of the cigarettes in general?  So in NYC cigarettes are $10/pack or $3,650 per year.  Now compare that with a premium E-Cig kit at $100 and $50/month in cartridges that equals $820 your first year and $100 less every year thereafter. Buying your electronic cigarette online in many cases like Eversmoke, you are not charged any sales tax by the seller.

So now that you have seen the numbers, why not make 2012 the year that you save yourself some money on taxes, get off the tobacco cigarettes and maybe save yourself on medical bills down the road.  Have a look at the reviews, discounts and rebates for the best electronic cigarettes at SmokeE.com.  Be sure to leave a review if you already have one of our products or after you make the switch.

Enacted Cigarette Excise Tax Rates per 20 Pack (in $) by State or Territory
Includes Increases Effective July 1, 2010
 Alabama  0.425  Montana  1.70
 Alaska  2.00  Nebraska  0.64
 Arizona  2.00  Nevada  0.80
 Arkansas  1.15  New Hampshire  1.78
 California  0.87  New Jersey  2.70
 Colorado  0.84  New Mexico                (0.91 until July 1, 2010)  1.66
 Connecticut  3.00  New York                     (2.75 until July 1, 2010)  4.35
 Delaware  1.60  North Carolina  0.45
 District of Columbia  2.50  North Dakota  0.44
 Florida  1.339  N. Marianas Islands  1.75
 Georgia  0.37  Ohio  1.25
 Guam  3.00  Oklahoma  1.03
 Hawaii                    (2.60 until July 1, 2010)  3.00  Oregon  1.18
 Idaho  0.57  Pennsylvania  1.60
 Illinois  0.98  Puerto Rico  2.23
 Indiana  0.995  Rhode Island  3.46
 Iowa  1.36  South Carolina              (0.07 until July1, 2010)  0.57
 Kansas  0.79  South Dakota  1.53
 Kentucky  0.60  Tennessee  0.62
 Louisiana  0.36  Texas  1.41
 Maine  2.00  Utah                              (0.695 until July 1, 2010)  1.70
 Maryland  2.00  Vermont  2.24
 Massachusetts  2.51  Virginia  0.30
 Michigan  2.00  Washington  3.025
 Minnesota  1.56  West Virginia  0.55
 Mississippi  0.68  Wisconsin  2.52
 Missouri  0.17  Wyoming  0.60

 

Tax Chart from: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/2010-state-cigarette-excise-taxes.aspx

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SmokeE Adds Brand News Section

January 29th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in E-Cig Brand News - (0 Comments)

Here at SmokeE.com we always are looking to find new ways to add value our community of users.  Recently we came up with the idea of aggregating useful e-cig news from around the web.  From there we decided to give our favorite brands that provide our users with the best electronic cigarettes some love.  So here is our new “E-Cig Brand News” section.  You may enjoy adding this and our regular blog a news sections to your favorite rss reader.

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Ireland Dominates Electronic Cigarettes

January 27th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Smokee Blog - (0 Comments)

Ok, well maybe they do not completely dominate them, but they sure do seem to like them. Outside of the US, Ireland ranks #2 in total searches for e-cigs.  I myself am partially of Irish decent, so I am thereby allowed (in my estimation) to make Irish generalizations. :)

Does an E-cig go well with a pint in an Irish Pub in Dublin? Do they Irish see this as a way to improve their heath?  Perhaps I need to take a trip across the pond to do a “research project” in the bars of Ireland.  (Thinking, hot Irish women with the Irish brogue) .. no back to the blog.

Whatever the people of Ireland are thinking, they are clearly thinking the right thing as e-cigs cut all the nasty out of cigarettes and make the ladies (or men) less apt to run away because you reek of filth.

Hopefully the rest of Europe catches on to the electronic cigarette craze and it wouldn’t hurt if they came on over to smoke.com to learn about the best electronic cigarettes that money can buy.  If you are visiting our little corner of the web  from Ireland, please leave a comment and share your Irish love with us.

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Using an Electronic Cigarette to Quit Smoking

January 26th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Smokee Blog - (1 Comments)

Using a e-cig to quit smoking seems like a viable options, but at this time there is not enough data, case studies or clinical trials to support the idea. To the opposite angle the FDA has been know to send letters to e-cig companies telling them that they are in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  These letters explaining the such as unsubstantiated claims that e-cigarettes can help people quit are not substantiated.

So from a marketing standpoint c-cigs can not be sold as devices to quit smoking. Given that electronic cigarettes lack the chemicals that make traditional cigs harmful and that you can get different nicotine strengths, one would think that you could use it to cut your nicotine intake while still enjoying the habit. They still have nicotine which some companies and organizations say is still bad and others not so much.

Have a look at this page on the “Americans For Non-Smokers Rights” site for some more detail on the issue from a legal perspective.

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Electronic Cigarette Review Sites, forums and The Quest for The Best Electronic Cigarette

January 25th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Smokee Blog - (0 Comments)

These days everyone loves the superlatives. The best, the fastest, the cheapest the most amazing!  Well in reality most things in life a just “meh”. So how do you shake out what is truly the best for whatever you are going to spend? Reviews.  You see them everywhere these days from retail sites to dedicated sites for specific types of products.  There are even shopping sites to rate the vendors that carry the products that are reviewed on the vendors sites.  Reviews are also available for a lot of non-physical products like software.  For example there are reviews on the wordpress plugins that this site is based on.

I personally love online reviews, as long as they seem trustworthy.  Whenever I go to look at a product that I have not bought before like tech gear or gifts for someone.  I always have a look at the aggregate (total) review and then number of people that the review is made up of.  One person staying that product is 5 stars is not all that powerful, but 0 people saying it is 5 stars and 10 nay sayers is more compelling.  I typically have a look at the crappy review just to make sure that these are out-lier situations or just complainers. Many times I find that these care customer services issues and people that bought the product for some reason that it was not intended.

In the relatively new world of electronic cigarettes (it has only really been a few years)  there are a lot of brands, a handful of technologies and a lot of unknown “stuff”.  So as with everything these days, the best place to turn to for the answer on these products it to social media and user generated reviews.  There are many review sites and forums on the web that specifically cater to electronic cigarette smokers. I will offer a few of the most popular and useful sites here, but in addition you can try Google searches and find many more.

Here are some of the top review sites:

Here are some of the top forums:

Now after all that talk about reviews and research, it all boils down to this.  Read up, understand what you want and then take the plunge.  None of these kits are prohibitively expensive (especially to a smoker spending a few hundred dollars a month on analog cigs).  Try a kit that rates well, get a discount on it and see what you think.  You can always get different flavors and strengths of cartridges down the road.  The better brands even let you put your fix on the schedule where they mail you our cartridges monthly.

So do your homework/research, take the plunge and then give back to the system that gave to you.  Make sure that you review the products yourself to help the next person that is doing their research.

While here are smokee.com we are in fact one of the review sites, we invite you to post your favorite review and forum sites in the comments and we will promote them up into the article. Thanks for helping us be a useful resource to the community with your feedback.

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Smoking Electronic Cigarettes in South Africa

January 24th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in Smokee Blog - (0 Comments)

Who knew that next to the united states South Africa does the most searches for Electronic Cigarettes?

Apparently many South Africans are increasing their health consciousness and health of their loved ones.  I invite these South African electronic cigarette smokers to come to Smokee and enjoy our reviews on the best electronic cigarettes on the web.  As I under stand South Africa has a few brands of their own that we may add to our site in time.  Should anyone come to the site from south Africa, please be sure to drop us a comment and let us know your favorite brands.

We  understand that given what the world now knows about the perils of tobacco use that anything that eliminates tobacco from the smoking equation is great.  Electronic Cigarettes look, taste and feels like a regular cigarette. However smokers can get their daily nicotine fix, without smoke, ash and harmful side-effects.

I assume that all people that smoke cigarettes enjoy the many favor an potency variations in the cartages. I look forward to comments from South African on what their preferences are so that we can compare them to the US based preferences.

I hope that this post is the first in a multi part series on the vaping habits of the South African people.

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E-Cigarette Nicotine Cartridge Strengths

January 19th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in E-Cig Tech - (0 Comments)

I had a conversation with the product manager at Eversmoke and she was explaining how not all brands have the 18mg nicotine cartridges.  For example, when you compareEversmoke to South Beach Smoke, Eversmoke has the 18mg cartridges while South Beach Smoke only has 16mg ones.

This then got me thinking. How much nicotine does a an analog (conventional) cigarette have?

I went out looking for this and found a few forums that discussed the issue.  Not everyone can seem to agree but here are some things to think about.

Nicotine needs to be absorbed to make an impact on your body.  So what is the absorption rate like with an e-cig?  Well  in a cloud of  liquid vapor, the particles are much
larger than smoke particles. In smoke, the nicotine is contained in much smaller particles and therefore is absorbed much more readily.

Everyone seems to agree however that smokers and e-cig users know how much they need to use to feel normal.  So that either means you vape stronger concentrations or you vape more of lower concentrations and you personally sort it out.

Here is a comparison between analog cigarettes vs electronic cigarettes e-liquid strength. This is a basic idea… as starting point and is not perfect by any means.

5- cigarettes a day – 8mg e-liquid or lower
10 cigarettes a day – 11mg e-liquid
20 cigarettes a day – 18mg e-liquid
30 cigarettes a day – 24mg e-liquid
40 cigarettes a day – 36mg e-liquid

Feel free to post comments if you agree or not.

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SmokeE.com Goes Dark to Protest SOPA

January 18th, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in SOPA - (0 Comments)

Stop SOPA PIPAGiven that I am writing this on Janualy 18th, I assume no one will really be reading it untill we get out of the Blackout, but Smokee.com has chosen to show its protest of the SOPA legislation by going dark on Janualy 18th 2012.  We strongly oppose throwing due process out the window for the benefit of the powerful.  For this one day, the people of the world will have to do without their Electronic Cigarette Reviews. :)

The quote below is a well stated statement from Wikipedia who is also joining the SOPA protest

“SOPA and PIPA cripple the free and open internet. They put the onus on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the blocking of entire sites, even if the links are not to infringing material. Small sites will not have the sufficient resources to mount a legal challenge. Without opposition, large media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for small competing foreign sites, even if big media are wrong. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines.

In a post SOPA/PIPA world, Wikipedia –and many other useful informational sites– cannot survive in a world where politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money in Washington. It represents a framework for future restrictions and suppression. Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is much more destructive than the disease they are trying to fix.

If you’d like to learn even more about SOPA/PIPA, click here.”

Interested in finding out more about who is/was involved in the protest?  Click to this  article, Smokee.com was also listed.

 

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Electronic Cigarettes as a New Years Resolution

January 1st, 2012 | Posted by Smokee in E-Cig News - (0 Comments)

The bloggers over at South Beach Smoke have an interesting article/idea around new years resolutions. Many smokers chose the new year to make healthy choices for the future. Given the many benefits of cutting out traditional cigs, we see their point.

“There are many reasons to switch from traditional cigarettes to electronic cigarettes at any during the year – but it seems most people make the switch around the beginning of the year. The New Year is an opportunity to give up your worst vices and that most definitely includes smoking traditional cigarettes. While there may be numerous reasons to switch, there are three that stand out above the rest. List below are the top four reasons switching to electronic cigarette starter kits. South Beach Smoke in 2012 just makes better sense.”

They propose the following  reasons for making the switch in the new year…

  • Live Better and Longer
  • No more second-hand smoke
  • Smell Better
  • Save Money

Seems like sound logic to us. Be sure to visit our South Beach Smoke Page for reviews and special offers.

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Katherine Heigl’s Electronic Cigarette

April 13th, 2011 | Posted by Smokee in E-Cig News - (0 Comments)

While I know that electronic cigarettes are all the rage these days, it surprises me then the paparazzi catch the rich an famous smoking them.  Apparently Katherine Heigl quit real cigarettes and replaced them with E-Cigs after she became a mom.  I guess whatever gets you there.

Heigl reportedly said, according to the Huffington Post…

“”Now I use an electronic cigarette,” she said. “I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s helping me not to actually smoke real cigarettes. You feel like you are smoking, and you get to exhale but it’s just water vapor and not nicotine. I’ve been doing it for six months. Smoking sucks!”"

Have a read of the full article in the Huffington Post.