Nicotine water - alternatives

[TropicalBob]

Nicotine water was dead on arrival in the USA. The Food and Drug Administration prohibited its sale (2002) even before it came to market. The reason? It was a drug-delivery system, not a dietary supplement as the maker claimed. Extend that logic to the e products and tell me we're not in future trouble with their availability in the USA.

Also banned were two other nicotine alternatives that could have proved useful in weaning a smoker off the carcinogens of tobacco smoke. One was a lip balm that would provide nicotine in a transdermal fashion, much as patches do. The nicotine would be absorbed through the lips. Reapplication would be easy, as needed. No, the FDA said. Rejection might be partly to protect Big Pharmaceuticals who invested heavily in approvals needed for gum, lozenges, patches, etc.

Rejected too were nicotine-laced lollipops. Just suck on one and get your fix while you look like Kojac. This would be attractive to children, critics said, who then would ??? jump to cigarettes. Not likely, but we don't have nicotine lollipops for the same reason we have very few alternatives that are not marketed by Big Drug companies. Political contributions always come with an IOU somewhere. This is one of those "where's." Kill the competition is the Golden Rule.

It seems to me that an industrious individual could use e-liquid to brew up some interesting alternatives to smoking, however. Lip balm, after all, is as easy to make at home as candles. Hard candies are easy to create on the home stove. Add a little e-liquid ... And I still wonder if I could safely soak toothpicks in e-liquid and then chew them all day. I'm at the point where I'll try almost anything. Risky? Here's a fact: I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing to myself when I suck these vapors into my lungs! Do I trust Chinese products? Are you kidding? I've read too many news items about how those "factories" substitute ingredients dangerously to save a few pennies.

Course, e-smoking is probably ... probably ... safer than the 50-50 Russian rhoulette played in a lifetime of real cigarette smoking.

[woody]

It seems to me that the makers of NRT understand perfectly that many people continue to use their products as an alternative to smoking for years after they quit smoking. Maybe they will develop e-smoking medical devises that will get FDA approval. Mankind has used nicotine in one form or another for centuries in some part of the world and I am sure it will continue.

[SmokeyJoe]

Tropical Bob,

I suspect you are right about the future difficulties regarding e-cigarette sales - at some stage, most countries are going to start looking into what type of regulation they fall under, and in many cases, I am sure, they will be banned outright.

In this globalized world, where it takes 4 days for an online purchase made to china to arrive in the U.S, I'm not sure sure what a difference that will make to us, who have already been turned on to the device, but it will almost certainly mean that many people who could have benefited from e-cigarette technology won't.

OR the publicity involved in the regulation process may spread the word. Who knows?

Woody - The Next Safety device is probably the more likely to get approval first, don't you think? The cynic in me says that since it looks unwieldy and medical it will get the nod far more quickly than e-ciggies!

[woody]

Certainly, a medical device type e-cig would probalbly not be something you would want to be seen in public with . Maybe the ideal manufacturers would be the cigarette companies who understand all about quality and consistency and have sufficient money behind them to market a reduced harm product and to ease the route through the licencing process. I know they spend fortunes on researching new products and I imagine they are keeping a close eye on the current e cig market.

[TropicalBob]

It's a design thing, Woody. That medical device is ugly - and doesn't look very portable. Maybe if it were a cylinder that could be worn on the back, with two clear plastic tubes that went over the shoulder and clipped inside the nostrils ...

No one could tell the emphysemic ex-smokers from the still-addicted e-smokers!

SJ: I think I read that Turkey wants to confiscate all of the e-smoking products that made it into that country. They want to know where they were shipped and who possesses them. I can't see that ever happening in the USA, where bumper stickers proudly talk of "prying my cold, dead fingers off my pistol." But fear of future illegality, even illegal to use, is why I'm happy I have my e-Pipe and soon my e-cigar. I do worry, however, about future availability of e-Liquid. That, more than the devices, will be government's target. It's concentrated addictive substance. They'll try to ban it.

On the Web now, you can read about many who fear for the future of tobacco; some smokers are hoarding huge amounts of tobacco in case it becomes too pricey or is "regulated" out of existence. It's not much of a leap to see pressure on e-smoking from those who oppose every possible pleasure derived from chemicals found in a weed.