In a previous blog entry about Bravo Smokes, the faux cigarettes made of lettuce, I compared the price of Bravo to traditional tobacco cigarettes. One of my blog readers, Marti, emailed me about this:
Hi Dossy.. just read your article on the Bravo Smokes and I agree with
you over 100%. Why should I pay more to quit when I enjoy smoking.
[…]
John Chappell, the President of Safer Smokes, Inc., makers of Bravo
Smokes, actually took the time to write me an email about this very
issue. Here is the relevant excerpt of what he wrote:
cigarette,
smoking,
Bravo Smokes,
economics,
tobacco,
cessation
Programmer, husband, father, singer, guitarist, tinkerer, reverse engineer, strange, and living in New Jersey. 
The largest portion of the price of cigarettes is taxes, at least here in California. As this is a non-tobacco product the profit margins must be quite healthy.
I’m looking to try these. I’ve found that there’s the nicotine addition, and also the “habit”. As I tend to use smoking to relax and step outside for “me” time (easy here in CA since smokers are social outcasts) the habit part is what I’m slow to give up. The nicotine isn’t much of an issue for me. I’ve tried the gum but curbing the chemical depedancy is very unsatisfying… I still want to kick back and have a smoke, even when I’ve overdone it with the gum and have the hiccups.
Basically, I want a “healthy” narcotic-free smoke to enjoy until I don’t want to smoke anymore. Without the nicotine ‘timer’ to remind me when to go light up my usage is likely to drop over time.
Even if I keep smoking for another year or more, it makes sense to minimize the health effects and remove the chemical dependancy as a factor.
Thanks all,
Have a great day!
-Xul