It was 2007 when I discovered ciga-likes.  I ordered from an advert on satellite radio. Smoking but without the smoke, I was in.  It was so expensive & the technology so lacking but… it was something that I could lean on and more effective than the patch, the gum, hypnosis, acupuncture (you name it).  I was a dreaded “dual user” for a couple years.  Everyday I didn’t smoke, I put ten bucks in a (very large iron) piggy bank.  It helped me when I was struggling to not smoke.  I would open the bank, count the money, and say to myself, “if I started smoking again today, this money would be gone in x amount of days.”

It was about 2 years in… 2009.  I was having to get my supplies online and they didn’t always show up.  I had so many questions but no one to ask.  One day, after weeks of no vape mail, I bummed a smoke from my neighbor.  That night, someone dear to me, said, “Hey Stinky, why did you smoke today?”  I can’t explain the emotions that flooded over me.  Disgust at myself, anger at my lack of control, pity for my plight, shame, weakness, despair… I wanted to dig a hole to hide in.  But, I couldn’t hide from myself.

Seeing me physically knocked out by the question, my confidant jokingly suggested that I start a business selling the product so that I would be assured to never run out.  I took that statement and marched straight to my iron pig.  I had just shy of $6,000.  It was at that moment that I realized why I had been smoking for 20+ years… so I could share this life-changing technology with other smokers.

That’s when it was born.  That is when I opened The Vaporium in Lakewood, WA.  I have never looked back.  And even with the current climate and an ever-graying head of hair, I have no regrets.