In 2014, Americans will spend about $2.2 billion on e-cigarettes — numbers that exceed those for nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT) and begin to compete with the $85 billion in annual sales (including all taxes) of lethal combusted tobacco.
The popularity of e-cigarettes has spawned acrimonious debate over their usefulness in harm reduction, which has obscured a key point established over the past 20 years: carefully constructed, clean nicotine-delivery devices for NRT (e.g., nicotine patches, chewing gums, and inhalers) are safe and can effectively drive smoking cessation.
