Dr. Joe Symmon

[Celtic]

I will be updating this section as I get his responses

His response:

Thank you for taking your time to find out my stand on issues that personally affect your life and your family.

I'll be very honest and candid whether I earn your vote or not. But I sincerely hope you vote for me for my honesty and not for political mileage.

I personally smoked for 7 years and was miserably addicted to chain smoking. I did everything in the book to stop and it was impossible. The solution came on June 10, 1973 when I accepted Jesus Christ to come into my life and deliver me from this injurious lifestyle and many other destructive and sinful acts. He became Savior and the Lord of my life. In seven days, it will be 37 years that I have not smoked and will never smoke, ever.

Every smoker understands that the habit is hurting their bodies no matter how enjoyable the habit is. And I will not lecture anyone what to do but I wish by God's grace that our bodies would be freed from this lifestyle for our sake and the sake of our families' health.

I tried to open the website to understand the electronic smoking but for some reason it couldn't open. So, I cannot comment as of now for something I do not understand. I do not know the health benefits or risks. But here is my position. I will not ban anything that is harmless to our people.

As Governor I will strive to advance and even give tax breaks for programs or benefits that would promote good health.

As a caring person, I will honestly not promote poisonous or hazardous drugs or materials that would harm our families. I am saying this because I care. I wish I would say it in a more palatable manner but I am concerned with every one's health whether I win the election or otherwise.

I never write so much to anyone, but I feel very interested with your inquiry and I hope you will appreciate my view and still earn your vote. If I do not satisfy and loose your vote, I'll not be mad. I'll be grateful though that you have heard from a very concerned, caring and honest Joe.

Thank you for reading. I rest my case and hope to hear from you. May God bless you and yours.

"Joe is not coming to us, Joe is from us."

Blessings and Gratitude,

Dr. Joe Symmon,

P.O. Box 390,

Rancho Cucamonga,

CA 91739.

www.symmonsays.com

My response:

Good afternoon Dr. Joe Symmon,

First I want to thank you for your time and your reply to my letter.

I am also a born again Christian, I have battled other issues, and because God was there for me, I survived and I am alive today only because of His mercy. I can't tell you how I used to feel so much guilt every time I put a cigarette in my mouth. It really did weigh heavily down on me and my children never made that any easier. I prayed many times in asking God to help with my addiction to tobacco cigarettes and sometimes I wonder if He needed me to be a part of this electronic cigarette movement. We both know he works in mysterious ways. Take for instance, my mother likes to go to Bingo every so often and I decided to go with her one night. We were approached by a woman who was volunteering and wanted to know more about what we were smoking. We started to tell her about the electronic cigarette and you could see a sign of relief come over her face. She then introduced us to her daughter who we noticed before was coughing constantly all night during Bingo. The lady Marie started to tell us that she had to perform CPR on her daughter, Ruthie, a few days before because she had stopped breathing. Marie said that Ruthie had tried to quit smoking and has never been able to. She had asked how much it cost to purchase and where, but instead she took out money and asked if we could purchase one for her daughter. Of course I told her we would. To make a long story a little shorter, the daughter started to use the electronic cigarette and told us that her breathing got so much better that she stopped coughing and she no longer was wheezing all day long. I would hear from her time to time asking if I could make her some e-juice, but I then stopped hearing from her. I soon found out that she stopped using the e-cigarette and went back to the tobacco cigarettes. Marie and Ruthie had come to my house to get her stocked back on batteries and e-juice for her electronic cigarette again and I could not believe how much she was coughing again. They had to take her back to the hospital that night. She is doing much better again now that she is not smoking the tobacco cigarettes and is smoking the electronic cigarettes. Every time I talk to Marie, she is constantly thanking me, but I tell her to not thank me, it is her daughter that is doing the work in staying away from the tobacco cigarettes. I told Marie that I would call Ruthie from time to time and see how she is doing.

I have tried to quit smoking so many times, and every time I tried to quit, I returned to smoke more then what I did before. I started smoking when I was 13 years old, I remember trying to tell my friends that I did not want to try cigarettes, and that worked for a few months until I gave into their constant asking, and that was it. I became a smoker.

I was smoking 2 packs a day as of January 2010. I had finally found an electronic cigarette that was right for me and I have not had a tobacco cigarette since Feb 1st, 2010.

My mother smoked for 45 years and I saw her struggle over the years of trying to quit and never could. She is the one who introduced me to the electronic cigarette. She has been smoke free for 6 months as well. She has stopped coughing at night and I never hear her cough throughout the day anymore. My grandmother, my mother's mother, died from emphysema and lung cancer, she was so very loved by so many of us, and I can't even tell you how we wished we would have found the e-cigarettes (electronic cigarette) back in 2003 when they were created.

The FDA wants to stop the sale of the e-cigarette because they do not have enough information about them. But, please look at the evidence, the electronic cigarette is a safer alternative then smoking tobacco cigarettes and should not be taken away, unless they are going to ban tobacco cigarettes as well.

E-juice has to be used in order for the e-cigarette to work. It can also contain nicotine or it does not have to contain nicotine. I make my own e-juice, of course after much research and many questions I am confident in creating the e-juice. So I will tell you what my e-juice contains. It contains 4 ingredients sometimes 3: United States Pharmacopeia Grade Kosher Certified Vegetable Glycerin, United States Pharmacopeia Grade Propylene Glycol, nicotine certified by U.S. labs and extracted from American tobacco leaves, and flavoring that candy makers use. That is it. Now, my mother started at 24mg of nicotine as I did in the e-juice, but now she is at 0mg of nicotine and I am at 12mg of nicotine now. My mother can stop the e-cigarette completely if she wanted to, but she still needs the hand to mouth addiction of a cigarette. To someone who has never smoked, that probably sounds funny, but in my opinion the hand to mouth action is the greatest addiction of all for most smokers.

I am also going to give a highly educated electronic cigarette user your email address to help explain more, so that you can understand our battle. His name is Christopher.

I am going to give you a few links to look at, some will be videos on YouTube I really need you to see, a petition that has been started that has a lot of information, and 2 huge forums that are for electronic cigarette users or people who want to know more about the e-cigarette:

UCLA & Santa Monica Hospital, Chief of Staff, Dr. David Baron talks about Electronic Cigarettes and their safety

Part 1

Part 2

The Petition

http://ecigssavelives.info/

The 2 major Forums for Electronic Cigarettes

http://www.vaportalk.com/forum/forum/

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/

The Electronic Cigarette Association (ECA)

http://www.ecassoc.org/

P.S. What I do not understand is if the FDA wants to ban the e-cigarette, why is it okay for the tobacco cigarette users to continue their habit. If tobacco users have a freedom right to smoke, why can't I use my electronic cigarette that will not cause cancer?

If you have any more questions just ask,

I am currently awaiting his response.

Celtic

[Celtic]

His final Response

Hello:

I hope all is well with you and yours. Thank you for responding to my email and giving me very important information I was not aware of.

I agree with you wholly on the valid argument that electronic cigarette should not be banned if the regular cigarette is permitted. And Joe Symmon as Governor will not ban the same in California.

Isn't it true what the scripture states that my people perish because of lack of knowledge. Many people are not aware of this fundamental information and therefore they make ignorant and misinformed conclusions.

Tomorrow is election day and I hope that you'll urge all your friends, family and colleagues via email, text messages and calling to go out and cast their ballots for Joe Symmon to be the Democratic Party winner with a landslide victory.

Thank you for your support and friendship.

Blessings and Gratitude,

Dr. Joe Symmon,

P.O. Box 390,

Rancho Cucamonga,

CA 91739.

www.symmonsays.com