Electronic cigarettes

Apparently they are the next big thing. People in Des Moines are using them in restaurants because of the smoking ban there:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080713/NEWS10/807130329/1001/NEWS

From Wikipedia:

Seems like more of a toy than anything else. But if you're looking for another business to get into ...

 

I think they should just make it injectable.

 

Could these be used as a quit-aid for smokers who want to gradually step away from the habit? I think I've seen similar things pitched as that.

 

It's a lot better than sitting next to someone smoking an actual cigarette.

 

I would rather be sitting next to someone who was shooting heroin, snorting Coke or smoking pot than someone smoking cigarettes.

 

That would be a little awkward, but at least you don't get the harmful crap from the other drugs. And you won't smell like it later.

 

Exactly, and pot smells about 1,000,000,000X better than cigarettes.

 

And unless the Feds can come up with a way to tax them to make up for the lost cigarette tax revenue, they will be declared illegal.

 

I'd be happier if they just made cigarettes illegal.

People will obviously continue to get them and smoke them, but at least they'd have to sneak around about it and not do it in public.

 

As long as they're taxed the way they are they will never be totally banned.

 

Agreed. I hope the taxes just continue to go up too.

 

An Iowa woman uses the electronic cigarette and explained how it worked on the local news last night here, before the Register did a story on it.

The major difference between a real one and the electronic one is that in the electronic one, there is no tobacco in it. Only nicotine is in it. She said, eventually, by using the faux cigarette, it will make you start to cut down on the dependency of lighting up.

You can raise taxes all we want to, but two things stand out to me, since we passed a state-wide smoking ban in Iowa:

1. it's not a real state-wide ban, because the casinos and the VFW's can allow smoking (which makes the law bullshit and the lawmakers look like greedy bastards since the casinos haul in $$$ to the state); and

2. the last time this country banned something, it was alcohol. That amendment didn't last too long, no thanks to Capone, Moran, and those good ol' boys down south with their illegal moonshine.