Laredo Vapor

About Laredo Vapor

Laredo Vapor is a locally owned and operated vapor shop bringing the finest quality electronic cigarettes to the Laredo market.  However, we use that term “electronic cigarette” only as a way to indentify ourselves to the market, as this is the term most people have heard with regard to our product.

Really, what we are selling should more properly called personal vaporizers.  These devices come with a rechargeable battery, and either a tank called a cartomizer, which holds a liquid and a small heating coil, or an atomizer that does not contain a liquid, but allows you to drip a liquid onto the coil in the atomizer.  These devices come in many shapes and sizes allowing for a uniquely personalized experience for our customers.  They offer a battery that only has to be recharged once a day and contain enough liquid to allow you not to refill the tank more than once a day, or even less.  The only disposable parts of these devices are the small coils (about the size of a small paperclip) that need to be replaced about once a month.  There are also a far greater number of flavors and nicotine strengths available for these devices.  Indeed, many people “vape” (we don’t smoke) on zero nicotine either as a way to satisfy a sugar craving (there are many sweet flavors that taste like apple pie or churros or raspas or even coffee) or as a weight loss aid.  There are also nicotine strengths from 24mg to as low as 6mg.  As a reference, the typical cigarette contains around 12mg of nicotine, thought that is dependent on many factors including how much rain the tobacco plants received that year.  The nicotine gums and patches you see contain 4mg of nicotine.

Our shop will specialize in this higher end of the market, though we are going to be able to keep the prices lower than the cig-a-likes being sold now at malls, and the pre-made kits that are currently sold at places that do not specialize in personal vaporizers.  Additionally, our supplier of the e-liquid is located in San Antonio, rather than NY, LA or China.  Their facility follows the most stringent standards in preparation for what we feel will be eventual rational regulations by the FDA on how these e-liquids are produced.  We wanted our supplier to meet the projected standards before they even became standards, and we are confident they do.  The e-liquid we will be selling contains only four (or three if you get zero nicotine) ingredients: medical grade nicotine, propylene glycol and/or vegetable glycerin (which are the agents that allow the liquid to vaporize and are used to make “smoke” in clubs and at Broadway shows), and food grade flavorings.  If you get the zero nicotine there are only the vaporizing agents and the flavorings.  None of these ingredients are carcinogenic.  Cigarette smoke, by comparison, contains over 4,000 chemicals and at least 69 of those chemicals are known to cause cancer!  That’s why we say we are a safer alternative to smoking.

I have spoken with some local physicians regarding our products.   They have agreed to send us patients that are diabetic to vape the zero nicotine and their patients that have not had any luck with other means of addressing their nicotine cravings.  The advantage of our product is that it mimics quite closely the sensations associated with smoking, rather than just delivering nicotine the way the patches and the gums do.  This is an important psychological aspect of the cigarette smoking addiction that is satisfied by our safer product.

To be sure, there is still nicotine in our product and it is an addictive substance.  But so is caffeine, and it is sold in various forms and in various stores all over the nation.  And when divorced from the TAR and other carcinogens the effects of nicotine are pretty much like any other stimulant.  With our product, at least, these cancer dangers are almost totally removed.  That’s why we call it a “safer” alternative.  Additionally there is no “second hand smoke” as the devices only produce vapor when they are activated during inhalation.  There are no smoke odors to linger in the air or to get in one’s clothes and hair.  Indeed, the only smell is a residual smell that is more akin to an air freshener, and it dissipates within seconds.

The father of one of our owners smoked almost the entire time he was a working attorney.  He finally quit when they landed a helicopter on his front lawn to take him to the hospital with severe pneumonia.  Although he recovered from the pneumonia, the damage to his lungs from smoking cigarettes was, by that time, done.  He eventually died of COPD.  When that owner was young he tried everything he could to get his dad to quit smoking.  However, with the stress of his job, his dad simply couldn’t do it.  If this technology had been around then, that owner like to think his dad would have had a better chance at avoiding the ingredients in the smoke that eventually killed him, while still being able to get the stimulant he needed to do his job.  He’ll never know for sure, but we are excited to try and help people avoid those same dangers his father couldn’t.  And if we can get some other people to use this technology to help control their weight or diabetes then more the better as well.  In short, Laredo Vapor strives to be a first class establishment that is dedicated to helping our customers enjoy a hobby that might make them healthier in the long run as well!