Smoke Digitally!!

Smoke without any side effects! But costly!

Products have recently been released allowing smokers to indulge their addiction and get a nicotine hit, without the harmful chemicals, toxins and cancer-causing poisons released by burning tobacco. These products are a type of “electronic” or “digital” smoking, in part designed to allow smokers to light up in places that have now banned smoking in effort to protect non-smoking patrons and employees.

One such product is the Crown7, an Art Deco styled tube with a cartridge and rechargeable battery. The cartridge contains water, propylene glycol, nicotine, and a tobacco flavor. One cartridge is equivalent to about two packs of cigarettes and each cartridge costs US$2 making it a much more affordable option than one-off use cigarettes although the initial investment in the reusable tube is significant, ranging from US$64.95 to $$149.95. The Crown7 comes in three styles to cater for all kinds of smokers: cigarette, cigar and pipe. Benefits of the Crown7 are that it contains nicotine but does not pollute the environment, emits only a harmless vapor, leaves no residual clothing or room odor and causes no harm to people in the surrounding area.

The second offering is the Vapir from AIR-2, an air vaporizer that transforms the active elements of virtually any plant substance into an inhaleable mist without actually burning the substance. “When a plant is burned its chemical make-up may change. When catalyzed by flame, many plants transform and create new compounds which were not inherent in the plant itself,” explains AIR-2 CEO Shaahin Cheyene.

A patented microchip regulates plant-specific temperatures for vaporization, also known as volitization, to avoid overheating or burning. The idea is to induce the plant to release its active elements without burning it. With tobacco users get the nicotine which they need to feed their addiction, but without the harmful smoke.

The concept even has the support of Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Lester Grinspoon who believes that the “applications are vast. This is the future of smoking. It may well be the future of all drug delivery.” Medicinal vaporization has the potential to eliminate hypodermic needles and oral medications which can be degenerated by digestive enzymes.