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Mailbag: Vaping done right can be good

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Patrice Apodaca’s column “Clear air about vaping” (March 20, Huntington Beach Independent) was interesting to read, although heavily slanted.

Vaping has gotten a large amount of press on the downside, and I agree it can be harmful if misused. Parents should make it a priority to be aware of what their children are doing and warn them of the dangers of misuse. But there is also an upside to vaping.

My daughter started smoking cigarettes 20-some years ago and was unable to stop, although she tried many times.

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In December 2012 she came home for her annual Christmas visit, and I talked her into trying to stop smoking using the nicotine patch. She tried the patch, and it worked to some degree, but the habit of reaching for a cigarette was still there, so we bought her an e-cigarette — one that did not contain nicotine.

The combination of the patch and the e-cigarette worked, and within three months she was off cigarettes, the patch and the e-cigarette. To this date she has remained a non-smoker.

So with the proper incentive, and choice of deterrents, the smoking habit can be beaten. Vaping under the right circumstances can be a positive health reform.

Robert Dettloff

Huntington Beach

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We need leaders focused on voters

Re: “Harper, Carchio file campaign paperwork” (March 13, Huntington Beach Independent).

As we head toward the 2014 elections, it is important to remind voters that their No. 1 priority should be how well the candidates at all levels can represent community interests.

We should put ideology and partisanship aside and focus on candidates’ positions regarding constituent concerns. We should not want mere partisan warriors in Sacramento or Washington, D.C., and yet that is all we have elected in recent years. It has cost us in Huntington Beach and throughout Orange County.

Now is the time for problem-solving and decision-making that makes a difference at the local level. Now is the time to demand representation for community interests. I agree with candidate Joe Carchio that big-name partisan endorsements shouldn’t be that important.

We need to take a hard look at what candidates will do for us, not to us.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

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