Lately I've been seeing more and more stories about employees of bars being responsible for enforcing new smoking bans in bars. Since when did it become the right of the state to force employees of bars to risk their health telling the large biker at the end of the bar that he can't smoke? If the state really had employees health in mind they wouldn't force them to do the job of police, which cops are eager to tell us is a very dangerous job.

I am a huge fan of Johnson Creek Smoke Juice as a company. They are the only manufacturer of nicotine liquid I have found that lists the contents of their product and really seems to care about the product. I use their products all the time and I love them, particularly the Tennessee Cured flavor and the Chocolate Almond flavor. I especially appreciate them after trying some of the off brand stuff that is sold on most of the sites on the internet, some of that stuff went right into the garbage after trying just a few puffs.

I am saying all of this becuase I am about to say something bad about one of their flavors and I don't want anybody to get the idea that I think poorly of all of their products. I ordered and received their sample pack recently which contains cute little bottles of every flavor they make. One of the first one's I tried was arctic mint. Let me tell you- it's bloody awful.

Johnson Creek's Arctic Mint

There is no accounting for taste and some people may love it, but to me it tasted like a peppermint patty soaked in formaldehyde and

I was annoyed when I read about employers discriminating against nicotine addicts in the workplace. It seems some employers are looking for nicotine in the bloodstream of current and potential employees.

Nicotine is a legal substance in the USA and employees should not be tested for it. If the patient is on nicotine replacement therapy for example, it's a medical issue and it is an invasion of the employees personal rights to have to submit to a nicotine test. What's next? Testing for high blood pressure medicine? Or AIDS medications?

Just an update today and a comment or two about the e-smoking community. First the update.

I smoked an "analog cigarette" today, I was drinking a gin and tonic and I just wanted one. This is the first one that I have had since Friday night when I was also drinking gin and tonic. Maybe there is a pattern here? In any case the experience was anticlimactic, it smelled funny and tasted bad, but it scratched some itch that my 901 or Penstyle just couldn't reach no matter how hard I puffed. Despite that I still feel like I am making progress on kicking tobacco out of my life. A year ago I couldn't imagine living four days without a smoke..

On to the commentary:

I've been "vaping" now for almost a month. My goal was to use electronic cigarettes to try and quit using tobacco altogether, or at the very least cut down to a very few a day.

I have been smoking cigarettes for over 20 years and I have tried multiple times to quit, so when I heard about these new devices I was really excited. Smoking without the tar, carbon monoxide and hundreds of other toxic chemicals seemed like a great way to do something good for myself without too much pain! Well so far it seems pretty good. Not great, but pretty good.

The electronic cigarettes do in fact deliver nicotine to my brain very quickly and I have cut my consumption down from 20-30 tobacco cigarettes a day to around 1 or 2. As I type this, I have not had one in about 36 hours and I feel fine. I don't miss them at all really. In fact when I do smoke one I find them unsatisfying, nasty tasting and smelly. A sure sign of progress IMHO.