Living Smoke Free – Nonprofit Startup

Consider just one thing:  if you or a loved one was about to face cancer or heart disease and you had the power to prevent it, would you?

The American Cancer Society recently reported that an estimated 159,260 Americans lost their fight with lung and bronchus cancer between 1995 and 2010. The lifetime probability of developing lung cancer is 1 in 13 for men and 1 in 16 for women. A statement from the American Heart Association described in February, 2013, that smoking “accounts for more than 440,000 of the more than 2.4 million annual deaths.” Those are very scary statistic!

It’s well documented that smoking leads to lung and bronchus cancer. In recent years, many state and local governments have made it harder and harder for smokers. On TV, on the radio, and even in social media Americans are encouraged to quit smoking. We all know it’s the best thing to do for our health.

So why hasn’t everyone quit smoking already? Why are we having this conversation?

The simple truth is that smoking is an addiction. There’s no attractive way of saying that. And, addictions aren’t easy to beat.

Scientific American, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science magazines, reported in May of 2013 that “nearly 70 percent of smokers want to quit, but despite the deadly consequences, the vast majority of them fail.” It went on to say that “fewer than 10 percent of smokers” were able to quit “cold turkey.” Even with the aid of FDA approved non-nicotine drugs and nicotine patches “75 percent of smokers light up again within a year.”

We know it’s bad. We want to quit. And, the available alternatives simply don’t work. What are we going to do?

Personal vaping devices (PVD) are helping thousands of former smokers reclaim their lives. PDVs are a nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that satisfies the psychological as well as physical addictions of smoking. People using PDVs take total control over the amount of nicotine they use. In short, PVDs empower those who want to quit smoking forever.

“If ‘vaping’ is so great then why isn’t everyone using PVDs?”

That’s a great question! And, that’s why we’re having this conversation. There are two significant problems that prevent people from switching from smoking cigarettes to using PVD sensation therapy:  reliable information and cost. I want to change that!

What I’m proposing is a two-fold approach to help people quit smoking for good:

First, the construction of an informational website / social support network that brings only the highest quality and reliable information to the public. This website would be open to everyone. My goal is to gather knowledge from around the world, from government agencies, and from news outlets – and collect all this into a single website that’s easy to navigate and brings the best, helpful news, information, and tips for using PVDs to quit smoking.

Now that the public is informed, can we address the second concern – cost? From personal experience, I can say that the use of “inexpensive” PVDs is ineffective – at least they were for me. I spent hundreds of dollars on disposable e-cigs because I never knew that there was a better option. When I discovered higher quality PVDs, I didn’t have the money to buy one – after all, it was going to cost me as much as two cartons of cigarettes. In the long run, of course, the cost of not using a PVD vs. smoking can’t be measured – but that’s not the mindset of someone who’s thinking about it and decides to pass. And after all, what happens if the PVD didn’t help me quit? I would have been out that money and still smoking!

How do we fix this? Easy. We give them away – free – to smokers who want to quit and either can’t or are afraid of spending the money to get started. We’re not talking about the inexpensive “disposable” e-cigs. Those devices are simply not as effective, even if they are cheaper. If we expect results, we have to provide better quality PVDs. I propose the development of a program that gives people who want to quit the best opportunity for success by offering assistance in getting started.

If you’ve made it this far, I can assume you want to know where you fit in – here it is:

I’m seeking seed money to begin constructing an outreach website, setting up the organization as a tax-exempt not-for-profit, and starting the “real work” of enlisting the help of corporate sponsors. Of course that’s not where it stops! We’ll need website editors that can scrounge medical news outlets for meaningful info, grant writers who know how to solicit government assistance, social networking experts who can help us bring our message of hope to the desperately discouraged smoking population, people to package and ship donated aid products, and the like. That means new American jobs.

This is not a for-profit business. I don’t plan to sell anything. That means the only income – the only way to keep this ball rolling is through your generous donations. By donating to this first leg of the campaign, you will be on the ground floor of something great.

At the beginning I asked:  if you or a loved one was about to face cancer or heart disease and you had the power to prevent it, would you? Of course you would!

Together, we can offer an encouraging hand to those who want to quit smoking for good and get the help they need to succeed once and for all.