Tobacco Harm Reduction - Electronic Cigarettes

Electronic Cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that deliver vaporized propylene glycol and nicotine when users inhale while using them. Manufacturers of electronic cigarettes often market them as a "cessation aid," claiming that they lack deadly chemicals while also satisfying both smokers' psychological and physiological needs. The regulatory status of e-cigarettes in many countries is uncertain, while in others the use or sale of electronic cigarettes is illegal (e.g. Australia and Hong Kong). This is likely because the cannabis-smoking counterculture has picked up on such devices as a way to brazenly smoke cannabis in public while attracting a minimum of attention by using them as a crude form of stealth vaporizer, thus minimizing the risk of arrest by law enforcement. There is a growing census of opinion that when seen as an alternative to smoking rather than a cessation route, the electronic cigarette does indeed have a valid place within tobacco harm reduction strategy. This new ideology has given rise to a relatively new way of regarding the electronic cigarette as a form of Recreational Nicotine Product.