It has been almost 20 years since I picked up the disgusting habit of smoking, I have tried to quit many times before but have failed every time, I couldn't last a couple of days before giving up and getting back at it...
Not sure if it was the recent incident of my brother being diagnosed with cancer that made me re-evaluate my current life style, but it sure was a push towards a better end; eating healthy, not drinking and exercising was already a part of my daily routine, which is natural once you hit 30 and you start to realize that you cannot live the same way you did 10 years ago; smoking however was still a part of me which I couldn't let go of and it was extremely difficult to adapt to it's absence, I was determined to do it this time, so I started to research about something called vaping.
For those that are unfamiliar, here is a quick explanation of what Vaping is:
So basically as explained, there is no burning here, no smoke is being produced, and what you are inhaling and exhaling is vapor, I had to do a lot of research before obviously taking a risk of getting myself involved in another habit which could be worse than cigarettes/shisha, but what I discovered was a real eye opener.
Over the past few years, the Bahrain Ministry of Health (MoH) has been doing nothing but creating a bad image of vaping and fill everyone's mind on how disastrous this thing is, I was under the impression that vaping will immediately kill you since it is the inhaling of pure chemicals, this ideology of course was growing in my mind due to the propaganda that the MoH was spreading, have these people done any form of research? do they have any laboratory test results to back up all these claims? We needed to go deeper..
So my "quit smoking" mission was still at its preparation phase, I decided to visit a few local tobacco shops and investigate about these e-cigarettes, all of them immediately told me the same thing: It's banned / it's illegal / we don't want trouble / we will get fined / don't talk about it / leave the shop please.
They made it sound as if I was asking for crack-cocaine, what was going on?
Apparently MoH was raiding these shops, confiscating any e-cigarette related products, as well as fining the shops for BD1000 and threaten of closure, the Bahraini shop owner of one of these tobacco shops didn't mind explaining this to me, unlike the other shops, and told me how illegal this thing is, and he mentioned "I don't know you, you could be an undercover investigator for all I know, so I will not provide you with any information on wither I was selling these, or will be selling in the future", talk about paranoia.
Since he was nice enough to chat, I decided to ask him what he personally thought of vaping, and according to his understanding, he truly believed it was a very dangerous habit which he did not wish upon his worst enemy, "As if this is the healthy option?" I replied as I pointed at the cases of tobacco and shisha products that were on display at his shop, he did not reply.
moving on, it seamed like I stumbled upon a dead end here, when I remembered a friend mentioning that they sell e-cigerretes in Kuwait, I spoke to him and luckily he was heading to Kuwait in a few days time, I decided to go ahead with it and get my first e-cigarette.
All the studies that you can dig up will tell you that there are effects from vaping as far, and they will all state that no long term effects can be determined for sure, which is a fair statement since vaping is still considered relevantly new, but people have been vaping on daily bases for the past 5 years at least, some users in forums claim they are still vaping since they quit and are in top health.
It's has been 3 months now since my last cigarette... And I couldn't be happier...
That awkward pain in chest... Gone
That disgusting bad smell... Gone
My blocked sinuses... Gone
My heavy breathing during sleep... Gone
I can smell things, I can taste things, my facial features are getting better and skin lighter, I can exercise better without getting out of breath, my teeth are cleaner...
And if that was not bad enough, a new "crack-down" was going on these Instagram accounts, fining them for as much as BD3000 for promoting and selling e-products! This is getting really ridiculous and out of hand.
I wonder what's next? Arresting anyone who is actually using them? I wouldn't be so surprised.
Studies have also claimed that number of cigarette smokers are declining yearly in the US and Europe, over 10% per year and rising, this is not a small percentage when you are talking about 45 million smokers in the US alone, think about the loss that the tobacco industry is suffering from yearly from this, which brings us to the realization that the ban in Bahrain is nothing more than economical.
All this nonsense about not being able to regulate the e-products as the MoH claims, didn't they regulate it in the UK? If you are worried about control, allow only licensed sellers to sell the products, same case as tobacco, and if you are worried about minors, then make sure that sellers are selling them to 18 years and older, again, same case as tobacco. But spreading lies? Come on, what are you going to do when you suddenly realize that there is good money to make from this? Tell the people to "forget everything we ever said about e-products!".
Its all about the money, its all about the dum dum duh dee dum dum
I wonder if anyone in Bahrain went all Walter White and started making homemade e-juice... because I'M RUNNING OUT OF JUICE AND I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO SMOKING!
Not sure if it was the recent incident of my brother being diagnosed with cancer that made me re-evaluate my current life style, but it sure was a push towards a better end; eating healthy, not drinking and exercising was already a part of my daily routine, which is natural once you hit 30 and you start to realize that you cannot live the same way you did 10 years ago; smoking however was still a part of me which I couldn't let go of and it was extremely difficult to adapt to it's absence, I was determined to do it this time, so I started to research about something called vaping.
For those that are unfamiliar, here is a quick explanation of what Vaping is:
[Source: http://www.vapersoul.com/ ]
Over the past few years, the Bahrain Ministry of Health (MoH) has been doing nothing but creating a bad image of vaping and fill everyone's mind on how disastrous this thing is, I was under the impression that vaping will immediately kill you since it is the inhaling of pure chemicals, this ideology of course was growing in my mind due to the propaganda that the MoH was spreading, have these people done any form of research? do they have any laboratory test results to back up all these claims? We needed to go deeper..
So my "quit smoking" mission was still at its preparation phase, I decided to visit a few local tobacco shops and investigate about these e-cigarettes, all of them immediately told me the same thing: It's banned / it's illegal / we don't want trouble / we will get fined / don't talk about it / leave the shop please.
They made it sound as if I was asking for crack-cocaine, what was going on?
Apparently MoH was raiding these shops, confiscating any e-cigarette related products, as well as fining the shops for BD1000 and threaten of closure, the Bahraini shop owner of one of these tobacco shops didn't mind explaining this to me, unlike the other shops, and told me how illegal this thing is, and he mentioned "I don't know you, you could be an undercover investigator for all I know, so I will not provide you with any information on wither I was selling these, or will be selling in the future", talk about paranoia.
Since he was nice enough to chat, I decided to ask him what he personally thought of vaping, and according to his understanding, he truly believed it was a very dangerous habit which he did not wish upon his worst enemy, "As if this is the healthy option?" I replied as I pointed at the cases of tobacco and shisha products that were on display at his shop, he did not reply.
moving on, it seamed like I stumbled upon a dead end here, when I remembered a friend mentioning that they sell e-cigerretes in Kuwait, I spoke to him and luckily he was heading to Kuwait in a few days time, I decided to go ahead with it and get my first e-cigarette.
A little more research was done while I was waiting for my goods to arrive from Kuwait, with a more focus on the e-liquid or E-Juice, what is it? what goes in it?
The main components of E-juice are Vegetable glycerine (VG) or propylene glycol (PG). VG is a natural produce extracted from types of vegetable, while PG is a chemical used in cosmetics and food products, it has been FDA approved to be generally safe for consumption, and inhaling tests have been made on lab rats with no side effects.
All the studies that you can dig up will tell you that there are effects from vaping as far, and they will all state that no long term effects can be determined for sure, which is a fair statement since vaping is still considered relevantly new, but people have been vaping on daily bases for the past 5 years at least, some users in forums claim they are still vaping since they quit and are in top health.
It's has been 3 months now since my last cigarette... And I couldn't be happier...
That awkward pain in chest... Gone
That disgusting bad smell... Gone
My blocked sinuses... Gone
My heavy breathing during sleep... Gone
I can smell things, I can taste things, my facial features are getting better and skin lighter, I can exercise better without getting out of breath, my teeth are cleaner...
Sad, truly is...
People are not stupid, anyone with a phone can look up the information and researches and can come up with their own conclusion, spreading lies is not going to go that far, let's look at the bigger picture here, if MoH is truly concerned about the public's health, why aren't shishas and cigarettes banned? The effects of shisha smoking is even far worse than is of a cigarette, is this truly the reason? Are the MoH of Bahrain more concerned about their citizens health than the UK MoH?
My last visit to the UK about a month ago was a true eye opener, vape supplies EVERYWHERE! They sell them at grocery stores right next to the cigarette packs behind the counters, they are encouraging people to quit smoking and use vaping devices. and the amount of people vaping in the streets, if 3 out of 5 people are smokers, 1 out if the 3 was vaping! It was so refreshing a thrilling to see how people have moved to a less fatal habit.
I was standing outside "vaping" when I was approached by an elderly English gentleman, he was curious about the device and had questions, although I was new to the scene myself, but I was happy to answer his questions, and how the transition between smoking and vaping was, hoping that he would consider quieting his 40 year old habit, it's never too late.
Back to Bahrain, I managed to get some supplies from the UK while I was there, but I was curious on how the vaping community was growing, I decided to look up Bahraini vapers on Instagram and was surprised at the increasing number of people selling products each day, where are these people getting all these products from?
Out of curiosity's sake I did try ordering through Aramex, I made 2 separate orders as a "test", one for a bottle of e-juice, another for a tank (no battery just a spare tank), both were declined and were labeled as unaccepted material.
The vaping community on Instagram were selling products at at least twice the price, in some cases 3 times as much, a starter kit by Kangetech which cost me around BD27 in the UK is being sold here for BD70.. But hey, that's the black market for you.
And if that was not bad enough, a new "crack-down" was going on these Instagram accounts, fining them for as much as BD3000 for promoting and selling e-products! This is getting really ridiculous and out of hand.
I wonder what's next? Arresting anyone who is actually using them? I wouldn't be so surprised.
Studies have also claimed that number of cigarette smokers are declining yearly in the US and Europe, over 10% per year and rising, this is not a small percentage when you are talking about 45 million smokers in the US alone, think about the loss that the tobacco industry is suffering from yearly from this, which brings us to the realization that the ban in Bahrain is nothing more than economical.
All this nonsense about not being able to regulate the e-products as the MoH claims, didn't they regulate it in the UK? If you are worried about control, allow only licensed sellers to sell the products, same case as tobacco, and if you are worried about minors, then make sure that sellers are selling them to 18 years and older, again, same case as tobacco. But spreading lies? Come on, what are you going to do when you suddenly realize that there is good money to make from this? Tell the people to "forget everything we ever said about e-products!".
Its all about the money, its all about the dum dum duh dee dum dum
I wonder if anyone in Bahrain went all Walter White and started making homemade e-juice... because I'M RUNNING OUT OF JUICE AND I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO SMOKING!
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