Electronic cigarettes - anyone tried these?

[landrun]

My mother is a very heavy smoker. If she's awake, she's pretty much got a cigarette in her hand. I saw these at the mall in Broken Arrow when I was visiting her and am considering buying them. But I don't want to buy a gimmic. And I don't want to waste my money on something she won't use.

So I'm looking for an honest evaluation of these things and am curious to know if any of you have tried them or know someone who has. Is this stuff worth buying?

edit.. can this be moved to south oval. :O

[Lott's Bandana]

Is that what I saw the Harris boys smoking on a recent After the Catch? Looked like a skinny MagLite.

[Pricetag]

My mom uses them, and she's pretty happy with them. The vapor that the user breathes out is not smoke, so they don't stink and generally jack things up like regular cigarettes. I had hoped that she'd use them as a means of quitting, but not so far.

[Boooom!]

I have one of these. What you are getting is only nicotine (and none of the other bad chems and stuff...supposedly).

It does satisfy the craving for nicotine...however, smoking is a 'nervous habit' - one that has a oral / falange fixation. The one I bought from Dave's Tobacco World in Okc is suppose to deliver an entire cigarettes worth of nicotine in just 3-4 drags. Those who try to smoke it like or as long as a regular cigarette ends up with too much nicotine, headache, and a bad taste in their mouth.... so it's back to cigarettes.

These can and will help you quit (or your mother), but one has to be wanting and trying to quit for it to be effective.

[Breadburner]

I know a bartender that kicked a guy out of the restaraunt for using one of these at the bar...heh...

[Theskipster]

My mom uses them, and she's pretty happy with them. The vapor that the user breathes out is not smoke, so they don't stink and generally jack things up like regular cigarettes. I had hoped that she'd use them as a means of quitting, but not so far.

She's not going to quit because of these. The addiction is to nicotine, not to smoking. You might want to look into some nicotine free electronic cigarettes if you like the idea of using the electronic cigarette to quit smoking. Those would work.

Unless you have a mental disorder like OCD, smoking is just a habit and not an addiction. So once you break free of nicotine, you can break free of the habit of smoking much much much easier.

You would never expect a heroin addict to quit heroin by using heroin. Don't expect a nicotine addict to quit by using nicotine.

[goingoneight]

It looks like a toy cigarette that you charge up with a computer I think. My friend brought one over to my house last week just to try and pizz me off for smoking in the house. I didn't give a shat either way. It does NOT smell, it's not a burn risk and doesn't taste like cigarettes FWIW. I'm not partial to smoking, though... so it didn't really affect me either way.