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Smokers Are Using E-Cigarettes to Get High

By  @elizalgray
Marijuana smokers are using electronic-cigarettes to get high, say local reports from across the country.
Electronic cigarettes are a growing industry in the United States, having ballooned from $300 million in retail sales in the U.S. last year to $1.8 billion by the end of 2013, according to Bonnie Herzog, a senior tobacco industry analyst at Wells Fargo Securities.
Marijuana users are seeing some of the same benefits in the devices, which produce a vapor of nicotine liquid or, in the case of marijuana, cannabis oil, liquid, or wax, that can be inhaled without the inconvenience of smelly, carcinogenic smoke.
Marijuana users, who explain their methods of using e-cigarettes to vaporize cannabis liquid in videos online, can make their own hash liquid and put it inside an e-cigarette, a lithium battery-powered device that heats liquid into vapor.
Local reports from Florida, New York, and Philadelphia, have reported on the trend of using electronic cigarettes to vaporize marijuana, citing concerns of parents, law makers, and law enforcement agents who worry that electronic cigarettes allow users to get high without detection. Both products are legal in some states and not in others, making enforcement even more challenging.
While states and cities across the country have begun to limit the use of electronic cigarettes–banning their sale to minors or indoors–the federal government has yet to regulate them, raising concerns about their safety. TIME explored the pros and cons of vaping in a feature on electronic cigarettes in September. While electronic cigarettes are believed by many in the public health field to be safer than regular cigarettes, without regulation by the FDA, there is no way for consumers to be sure about the safety of the products they are buying, whether they contain nicotine or marijuana
http://nation.time.com/2013/10/11/smokers-are-using-e-cigarettes-to-get-high/#ixzz2i1ElVhkY

New fears as wave of smokers are now using E-cigarettes to smoke marijuana in public

By ALEX GREIG
Marijuana smokers are using battery-powered e-cigarettes to smoke marijuana.
E-cigarettes are being touted by manufacturers as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, but officials believe creative smokers are using the the devices to smoke marijuana undetected.
Cannabis, in liquid or wax forms, doesn’t emit the pungent odor that marijuana smoked in plant-form does, making it easy to use the drug with the discreet gadget.
‘I was on the train from New York to Baltimore and I enjoyed the pen the whole way there and back with no one noticing,’ one anonymous marijuana user told NBC.
‘I absolutely was thinking “This is not bad at all.”‘
The portable vaporizers don’t contain tobacco, but instead vaporize liquid nicotine.
Sales of e-cigarettes have soared in the past few years as more and more people take up the gadget, which emits no smoke and little to no odor, in favor of cigarettes.
Vaporizers for cannabis users have been around for a while, but now people are using e-cigarettes for the same purpose – and it’s impossible to tell what exactly someone who is using an e-cigarette in public is inhaling.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that shows the number of middle school and high school students who use e-cigarettes doubled between 2011 and 2012.
Authorities are troubled by the prospect of minors catching on to the trend and graduating from nicotine to marijuana.
As evidenced by the number of YouTube videos instructing smokers on how to doctor an e-cigarette for marijuana use, people are finding ways to use legal products illegally.
To combat e-cigarettes becoming a gateway for other more harmful substances, New York assembleywoman Linda Rosenthal introduced a bill last year making it illegal to sell e-cigarettes to minors.
‘Once you try electronic cigarettes, you can become hooked to them, move on to cigarettes and then move on to other drugs,’ Rosenthal told NBC.
Some other states, including New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maryland, have also banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.
There are currently no federal regulations in place for e-cigarettes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2454693/E-cigarettes-used-smoke-marijuana-public.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

E-Cigarette trend catching on, but what are the effects?

by Stephanie Zepelin
BOISE — It might be a trend you have noticed: electronic cigarettes. The devices use battery power to heat a liquid (usually containing nicotine) the user inhales. Some folks are choosing this option over traditional cigarettes.
Electronicstix, a company that started in Utah, just opened their first store in Boise.
“We have three stores that have been pretty seasoned down in Utah,” said Devin Norager, who works at ElectronicStix.
Norager smoked traditional cigarettes before switching to vaping, and says a lot of people are in that same situation.
“Ninety-nine percent of it is people that do smoke and want a healthier alternative,” Norager said.
Kody Girard smoked for more than a decade, and is using vaping to cut costs from purchasing traditional cigarettes. Girard said he doesn’t know much about the health effects of vaping.
“It’s just like smoking,” said Girard. “You don’t know much about it you try to ignore it the best you can because it’s bad. So this might not be, but it’s gotta be better than cigarettes.”
Doctor Jim Souza, Vice President of Medical Affairs at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Boise, talked with KTVB about the health effects of e-cigarettes.
“I think the state of the science right now is there’s not enough information to draw a conclusion,” said Souza.
Dr. Souza said the main concern in health care is e-cigarette marketing targeting to kids.
“It’s estimated now that 10 percent of high school seniors have used e-cigarettes, of that 10 percent, 75 percent of them also use tobacco,” Souza said. “So because nicotine is so powerfully addictive, the concern from a public health perspective is that this could be a gateway into traditional tobacco for young people, and that would be a public health disaster.”
However, the reserve effect could be good for public health.
“I think most folks in health care think that if all smokers could convert to e-cigarettes, that would probably be a public health boon, although we don’t know that for sure,” said Souza.
He said it does help people kick the habit.
Audra Johnson started smoking years ago, and has been vaping for about three months.
“I figured it would help because I’ve tried patch, the pill, everything else, Chantix, nothing has really worked,” said Johnson.
Johnson said she is saving money by switching over to e-cigarettes, and feels better.
E-cigarettes range anywhere in price from a few bucks for a disposable one to several hundred dollars for the high-end products.
http://www.ktvb.com/news/E-Cigarette-trend-catching-but-what-are-the-effects-226619581.html

5 Things You Need to Know About E-Cigarettes

By  (@lizzyfit)

The electronic cigarette was invented in the 1960s, but it didn’t really take off until a decade ago. Currently, there are more than 250 brands of “e-cigarettes” available in such flavors as watermelon, pink bubble gum and Java, and in more colors than the iPhone 5C.

The Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association estimates about 4 million Americans now use battery powered cigarettes. They project sales of the devices to cross the 1 billion mark by the end of this year. Here, a look at the e-smoke trend, the good, the bad and the unknown.

What are e-cigarettes?

E-cigarettes are battery operated nicotine inhalers that consist of a rechargeable lithium battery, a cartridge called a cartomizer and an LED that lights up at the end when you puff on the e-cigarette to simulate the burn of a tobacco cigarette. The cartomizer is filled with an e-liquid that typically contains the chemical propylene glycol along with nicotine, flavoring and other additives.

The device works much like a miniature version of the smoke machines that operate behind rock bands. When you “vape” — that’s the term for puffing on an e-cig — a heating element boils the e-liquid until it produces a vapor. A device creates the same amount of vapor no matter how hard you puff until the battery or e-liquid runs down.

How much do they cost?

Starter kits usually run between $30 and $100. The estimated cost of replacement cartridges is about $600, compared with the more than $1,000 a year it costs to feed a pack-a-day tobacco cigarette habit, according to the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association. Discount coupons and promotional codes are available online.

Are e-cigarettes regulated?

The decision in a 2011 federal court case gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate e-smokes under existing tobacco laws rather than as a medication or medical device, presumably because they deliver nicotine, which is derived from tobacco. The agency has hinted it will begin to regulate e-smokes as soon as this year but so far, the only action the agency has taken is issuing a letter in 2010 to electronic cigarette distributors warning them to cease making various unsubstantiated marketing claims.

For now, the devices remain uncontrolled by any governmental agency, a fact that worries experts like Erika Seward, the assistant vice president of national advocacy for the American Lung Association.

“With e-cigarettes, we see a new product within the same industry — tobacco — using the same old tactics to glamorize their products,” she said. “They use candy and fruit flavors to hook kids, they make implied health claims to encourage smokers to switch to their product instead of quitting all together, and they sponsor research to use that as a front for their claims.”

Thomas Kiklas, co-owner of e-cigarette maker inLife and co-founder of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, countered that the device performs the same essential function as a tobacco cigarette but with far fewer toxins. He said he would welcome any independent study of the products to prove how safe they are compared to traditional smokes.

The number of e-smokers is expected to quadruple in the next few years as smokers move away from the centuries old tobacco cigarette so there is certainly no lack of subjects,” he said.

What are the health risks of vaping?

The jury is out. The phenomenon of vaping is so new that science has barely had a chance to catch up on questions of safety, but some initial small studies have begun to highlight the pros and cons.

The most widely publicized study into the safety of e-cigarettes was done when researchers analyzed two leading brands and concluded the devices did contain trace elements of hazardous compounds, including a chemical which is the main ingredient found in antifreeze. But Kiklas, whose brand of e-cigarettes were not included in the study, pointed out that the FDA report found nine contaminates versus the 11,000 contained in a tobacco cigarette and noted that the level of toxicity was shown to be far lower than those of tobacco cigarettes.

However, Seward said because e-cigarettes remain unregulated, it’s impossible to draw conclusions about all the brands based on an analysis of two.

“To say they are all safe because a few have been shown to contain fewer toxins is troubling,” she said. “We also don’t know how harmful trace levels can be.”

Thomas Glynn, the director of science and trends at the American Cancer Society, said there were always risks when one inhaled anything other than fresh, clean air, but he said there was a great likelihood that e-cigarettes would prove considerably less harmful than traditional smokes, at least in the short term.

“As for long-term effects, we don’t know what happens when you breathe the vapor into the lungs regularly,” Glynn said. “No one knows the answer to that.”

Do e-cigarettes help tobacco smokers quit?

Because they preserve the hand-to-mouth ritual of smoking, Kiklas said e-cigarettes might help transform a smoker’s harmful tobacco habits to a potentially less harmful e-smoking habit. As of yet, though, little evidence exists to support this theory.

In a first of its kind study published last week in the medical journal Lancet, researchers compared e-cigarettes to nicotine patches and other smoking cessation methods and found them statistically comparable in helping smokers quit over a six-month period. For this reason, Glynn said he viewed the devices as promising though probably no magic bullet. For now, FDA regulations forbid e-cigarette marketers from touting their devices as a way to kick the habit.

Seward said many of her worries center on e-cigarettes being a gateway to smoking, given that many popular brands come in flavors and colors that seem designed to appeal to a younger generation of smokers.

“We’re concerned about the potential for kids to start a lifetime of nicotine use by starting with e-cigarettes,” she said.

E-cigarettes can not be sold to minors yet vaping among young people is on the rise.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found nearly 1.8 million young people had tried e-cigarettes and the number of U.S. middle and high school students e-smokers doubled between 2011 and 2012.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/facts-cigarettes/story?id=20345463#

Duluth News Tribune view: Obvious danger requires fair and responsible rules

The packaging on electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, doesn’t say much. Which actually is kind of scary. Just what’s being inhaled into the body when “vaping?” Certainly not just vapors, as suggested by the slang verb for puffing on the products. And what’s being exhaled for everyone around to breathe in and ingest?
One thing the packaging does say: e-cigarettes contain nicotine. How much? Doesn’t say, and, according to experts, it can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and from brand to brand. But does it even matter? It’s not like there’s such a thing as a safe amount of the highly addictive, cancer-causing drug nicotine.
Even scarier? E-cigarettes, as addictive, dangerous and harmful to health as they may be, are actively being marketed to kids, just the way tobacco cigarettes used to be. Remember Joe Camel and the portrayal of smoking as cool and hip and what everyone who’s anyone was doing? This time — powered by nearly $21 million in advertising in 2012, according to the New York Times — it’s kid-friendly flavors like watermelon and cookies-and-cream milkshake and the portrayal of vaping as cool and hip and what everyone who’s anyone is doing.
Unlike tobacco, however — and this may be most troubling of all — kids can buy e-cigarettes easily and legally, including online. And they are. The percentage of U.S. middle school and high school students taking drags on e-cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week. In 2012, more than 1.78 million middle school and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigarettes, a precursor to tobacco cigarettes.
So something clearly has to be done, right, before a whole new generation embraces a filthy, unhealthy habit and sees it as just a normal part of our culture? On Monday, the Duluth City Council has an opportunity to take some sensible action.
The first of three ordinances the council owes it to the community to approve would require a license to sell e-cigarettes the same way sellers of tobacco have to be licensed. In fact, an existing tobacco license would cover e-cigarettes under the measure. A second ordinance would prohibit the use of e-cigarettes in places already designated by law as no-smoking, like inside public buildings, along the Lakewalk, at bus stops and elsewhere. And a third ordinance would close a loophole in clean indoor air laws meant to allow the sampling of tobacco in tobacco shops prior to purchase. Some are exploiting that provision to sell group-smoking experiences in lounge settings.
“The big misconception for a couple of weeks was that Duluth wants to ban e-cigarettes. That’s not it at all,” Jill Doberstein, program manager for tobacco prevention and control for the American Lung Association in Duluth, said in an interview last week with the News Tribune editorial board.
No, the idea is responsible regulation of their use, not the banning of e-cigarettes altogether.
Some users of e-cigarettes swear by their effectiveness in quitting tobacco even though the government has yet to certify them as safe and effective smoking-cessation devices the way it has nicotine patches and other products.
The safety and effectiveness for smoking cessation of e-cigarettes is still being studied and determined, and while the jury is out, adults certainly should be allowed to ignore the health risks and dangers and use e-cigarettes. They can be allowed to forget that the only safe air to breathe is clean air. It is a free country.
But allowing e-cigarettes to pollute the air of others, to be pushed on unsuspecting kids, or to be used without any rules, regulations or controls whatsoever is, well, it’s just downright scary.
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/277303/

E-cigarettes health: Carcinogens found in e-cigarettes a danger, study finds

E-cigarettes health reports recently reveal that this seemingly “healthy” cigarette alternative may not be as good for users as many would like to believe, and that they might even include a similar number of dangerous carcinogens as regular cigarettes when smoking, Yahoo! reports this Tuesday, Aug. 27. The study highlights in its finding that researchers found that up to 3 out of 10 e-cigarettes had levels of acrolein and formaldehyde that were almost the same as those in standard cigarettes, a shocking discovery for some.
The e-cigarettes health study comes at a time when these electronic cigarettes have become an increasingly well-known substitute for smokers (many of whom may be trying to quit). Although the device also uses heat which vaporizes the nicotine into the body when inhaled, it does not contain the unhealthy tobacco.
Smokers that want to try to avoid some of the dangers and health risks associated with smoking, or in the process of kicking the bad habit, often use e-cigarettes as another option to still get their nicotine fix, while avoiding many of the serious health risks linked to regular cigarette smoking, most notably cancer.
Yet France’s National Consumer Institute magazine released some shocking new findings this Monday, reporting that a majority of e-cigarettes on the market today still hold “a significant quantity of carcinogenic molecules” that could pose a similar danger to these electronic smokers.
The study discovered via its researchers that 3 out of every 10 e-cigarettes still contained high levels of some carcinogenic substances, including that of formaldehyde and acrolein.
Though a banning may not be in order, raising public health awareness or putting limits to the e-cigarettes might be a sensible option, notes the magazine’s editor-in-chief
“This is not a reason to ban them, but to place them under better control.”
Added another statement on the rising popularity of e-cigarettes and the highly believed health benefits of the substituent device in terms of this new study:
“E-cigarettes are more than just a fad,” reads a piece from the report. “E-Cigarettes’ appeal stems from a variety of perceived advantages over traditional cigarettes, most commonly the perceptions that e-cigarettes are healthier, cheaper, and can be used almost anywhere … Yet they may have some hidden dangers, including those of carcinogens and other dangers.”
Do you have any insight into the e-cigarette health news? Do you agree with the study’s finding that dangerous carcinogens may lurk in these seemingly more healthy e-cigarettes?
http://www.examiner.com/article/e-cigarettes-health-carcinogens-found-e-cigarettes-a-danger-study-finds

Target Field Says ‘No’ To E-Cigarettes

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (WCCO) – More smokers are turning to electronic cigarettes as a less-expensive and less-regulated way to get their nicotine. But they’re still so new, governments and businesses are grappling with how to deal with them.
E-cigarettes have a battery-powered heating element that produces vapor rather than smoke. They’re not restricted under Minnesota’s Clean Indoor Air Act, but many businesses – including the Minnesota Twins – are telling customers to put them away.
The team’s senior director of communications, Kevin Smith, says the restriction has been under consideration for some time.
“Because of the proliferation of it, we want to make it crystal clear that Target Field is a non-smoking venue of any kind,” Smith said.
Smith says an increasing number of fans had been spotted using the e-cigarettes, so stadium announcer Adam Abrams now has an extra line in his pre-game announcements.
Twins fan Jay Rudi of Edina appreciates the team’s policy.
“When I bring my family here, I don’t want to have to be breathing in smoke,” Rudi said.
Sina War, owner of Uptown Vapor Shoppe, says her store has been in business since April. She says many people misunderstand how e-cigarettes work.
“We call it ‘vaping’ because it’s vapor,” War said.
It may look and feel like smoking, but the e-cigarettes aren’t loaded with tobacco. They’re filled with liquids, in flavors like Red Bull, cupcake and mango.
Most of those liquids contain nicotine, which comes from tobacco.
“It just smells like what you’re vaping on, so if you’re vaping on lemonade, it just smells like lemonade,” War said.
Nancy Carlson of Minnetonka talked her cigar-smoking husband, Brian, into visiting the Uptown Vapor Shoppe in hopes that he’ll make the switch.
“We have a shed, and he’s banished to the shed in the winter time,” Carlson said.
The FDA has indicated it may start regulating e-cigarettes in the fall. For now, there are few studies into whether they’re actually safe.
“It’s not hurting anyone around you,” War said. “It’s helping the person actually using it.”
Advocates for e-cigarettes wish they could take the word “cigarette” out of it because of the negative connotation.
In California, they’re known as “personal vaporizers,” or PVs.
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/08/19/target-field-says-no-to-e-cigarettes/

Vaping May Be Hazardous to Your Health

By the Editors
“Mind if I vape?”
The question may become more common as electronic cigarettes become more popular. The answer, however, remains elusive. Etiquette aside, the health effects of inhaling nicotine vapor (hence the term) are largely unknown. More research is clearly needed, but in the meantime, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has to start regulating e-cigarettes.
U.S. consumers will spend $1 billion on battery-powered smokes this year, 10 times more than they did four years ago. Are e-cigarettes, which come in such flavors as chocolate and butter rum, a benign device to help people stop smoking? Or are they just a new way to feed an old addiction? How safe, compared with tobacco smoke, is the vapor they create?
No one knows. The small studies that have been done so far hint at both pros and cons; one found that smokers cut back on real cigarettes after trying the electronic kind, while anotherfound particles of metal and silicates in e-cigarette vapor that could cause breathing problems. That there are more than 200 brands containing varying levels of nicotine and other substances only makes it harder to assess their safety.
The FDA has indicated it will begin to regulate e-cigarettes this fall. After a federal judge ruled that it couldn’t classify them as medical devices (because they deliver a drug, nicotine), the FDA will regulate them as tobacco products (because nicotine is derived from tobacco). Unlike regular cigarettes, however, e-cigarettes are not known to be lethal. Wariness is warranted, but it’s safe to assume that their vapors are not nearly as dangerous as tobacco smoke.
The FDA’s approach, therefore — and that of states and cities that regulate tobacco use — should be two-pronged: It should find out whether e-cigarettes are indeed safe. And while it does, it should ensure that “vaping” remains restricted to adults who are fully informed of the potential risks.
To begin, e-cigarette makers should be required to report and label all ingredients in the nicotine solutions they use. Even though these deliver fewer poisons than are found in traditional cigarettes, they nevertheless have been found to contain carcinogenic nitrosamines and other harmful impurities derived from the tobacco, as well as the additive diethylene glycol, an ingredient in antifreeze.
Manufacturers should also disclose the amount of nicotine that can be inhaled from their e-cigarettes. Today’s models haven’t been found to give users as large a hit of nicotine as regular cigarettes do, but that may not always be the case. (Some bottles of solution meant to refill e-cigarette cartridges have been found to contain enough nicotine to kill an adult if ingested.) Once more is known about the potential hazards of e-cigarette vapors, the FDA may need to restrict certain substances or place limits on nicotine levels.
Then there is the issue of flavoring — something the FDA forbids in standard cigarettes. All electronic cigarettes are flavored, so to ban flavoring would be to ban the product entirely. But it’s possible to allow tobacco- or even mint-flavored e-cigarettes and still ban or restrict flavors designed to appeal to children, hard as they may be to define.
While they’re at it, the FDA should also ban sales to those younger than 18 and restrict e-cigarette marketing and advertisements in much the same way it limits them for cigarettes. As for health warnings, the agency will need to wait for more data before deciding what exactly they should say.
States and cities, meanwhile, should include e-cigarettes in their restrictions on smoking in public places and office buildings, and apply the same rules on the retail sale of e-cigarettes as they do to tobacco products. Even in towns where there are few restrictions, bars and restaurants would be wise to prohibit “vaping” until they know whether it pollutes the air.
On the question of taxes, states and cities may want to act gradually. If e-cigarettes are found to be valuable smoking-cessation tools, then they may warrant a tax rate that’s lower than what’s imposed on real cigarettes.
It would be great if e-cigarettes turned out to be the breakthrough that gets people to give up smoking tobacco. In the meantime, we should all be careful that e-cigarettes not perpetuate a habit that society has come a long way toward snuffing out. Sensible regulation can help protect that progress.
To contact the Bloomberg View editorial board: view@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-18/vaping-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health.html

Reading the smoke signals on e-cigarettes: Can you puff away on a plane, train or in your local bar?

By / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Where there’s smoking, there’s no longer fire — but there’s plenty of heated debate.
Electronic cigarettes, known to smokers as e-cigarettes, are lighting up the city as puffers snuff out their butts in favor of the refillable, rechargeable alternative, which produces a not-so-smelly vapor instead of pungent smoke.
But should tokers treat these devices like cigarettes themselves, keeping the habit out of restaurants, bars, barbershops and airplanes? Or should they light up wherever the mood strikes, taking advantage of industry claims that the synthetic nicotine sticks are as harmless to passersby as nightclub fog machines?
Depends on who — and where — you ask.
Trains, planes and buses are out of the question.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority told the Daily News it allows no e-cigs on the E train or any of its rides, for that matter.
“We would interpret our prohibition on smoking as applying to electronic cigarettes,” a spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail.
The Long Island Rail Road also extends it cigarette ban to e-cigarettes.
The U.S. Department of Transportation says no smoking — or “vaping,” as e-cigarette enthusiasts call it — on airplanes.
But that’s where the formal prohibitions end. The city Parks Department doesn’t consider vaping to be smoking, meaning Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on puffers in parks is not airtight.
More importantly, the city’s Department of Health says Bloomberg’s defining Smoke Free Air Act, which prohibits smoking inside public places, does not govern electronic smoking. That means as far as the city is concerned, any bar, restaurant, movie theater, nightclub, bowling alley, nail salon or shopping mall is fair game for vaping.
That is, of course, if business owners choose to allow it.
Some do, and some don’t: Starbucks recently snuffed out the chance for patrons to enjoy coffee and e-cigarettes, while lower East Side bars Iggy’s, Whiskey Ward and Coal Yard don’t have a problem with it. On the other hand, many Times Square bars and Broadway theaters say no to e-smoking.
It’s a legal area that’s grayer than a smoker’s lungs, according to Phil Roseman, co-owner of VapeNY, Manhattan’s first electronic-cigarette shop.
“What we tell our customers is that you can vape anywhere you like,” says Roseman, whose newly opened lower East Side storefront sells the battery-powered devices for about $40 a pop, as well as flavored refills like coffee, vanilla and “juicy fruit.” “I’ve taken it on planes, into restaurants and movie theaters, and never had a problem.”
The store has been doing brisk businesses, as more and more nicotine addicts decide they don’t want to pay $15 for a pack of real cigarettes when there’s a cheaper, less-taxed, and more socially permissable alternative.
Not to mention, one that doesn’t stink up the whole apartment.
“I can use this e-cigarette as much as I want and my wife doesn’t complain about the smell,” says lower East Side resident Mike Chan, 41, a VapeNY regular who spends about $30 a month on the liquid refills, down significantly from his cigarette-smoking days.
That’s not to say all New Yorkers are welcoming the glowing tip of these electronic devices.
“There was a time when I was wasted, vaping an e-cigarette, and someone came up to me and told me to put it out,” says Alex Catarinella, 26. “I blew smoke in his face and then pretended to put out my cigarette on his chest. He jumped!”
Writers and regular e-smokers Christelle Gérand, 27, and Joel Johnson, 35, toured the city with the Daily News and vaped openly in bars, restaurants, a dry cleaner and even a grocery store without anyone telling them to cut it out.
“I am surprised at how many places don’t seem to mind — especially bars,” says Johnson.
One place that will never turn e-smokers away is the Henley Lounge, planned to open in SoHo in September. The local e-cigarette company hopes to screen films and host talks, all while passing out samples of its Henley e-cigs.
“Our job with this company is to educate people that nicotine is like caffeine,” says Henley co-founder Talia Eisenberg. “Yes, it’s addictive, but it’s not going to hurt you.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/rules-e-cigarettes-article-1.1412964?pgno=1#ixzz2ajJYNc2i
 

Cities Struggle to Classify E-Cigs as They Grow in Popularity

By: Joy Lim Nakrin
A growing trend is taking hold in the Twin Cities: electronic cigarettes.
Minnesota’s recent tobacco tax hike seems to have given the business a boost. “Smokeless Smoking” opened its first store in 2009. Now, four years later there are four locations.
Since the new tobacco taxes took effect this month, sales spiked 50 percent, says co-owner Tim Koester. He explains, “Certainly our typical customers are former smokers or people who want to transition off traditional cigarettes.”
E-cigarettes contain vapor with nicotine, not tobacco. Since stores that sell them aren’t tobacco shops, some cities are struggling with how to classify them under city codes.
Though they sell nicotine, the stores are not tobacco shops. Though they feature lounges, they are not food and beverage establishments.
Bloomington City Councilwoman Karen Nordstrom says, “It seems very strange to have this under recreation, but its not going fit anywhere else.”
Smokeless Smoking plans to expand its Bloomington location, which opened in January.
Watch the American Cancer Society weigh in on the smokeless option by clicking here.
http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3110950.shtml