So I was at the mall last week (don't hate!!), and I noticed a kiosk where the salesmen were puffing on what appeared to be real cigarettes. But they obviously weren't—they were most likely these…

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They're billed as "E-Cigarettes" or electronic cigarettes. Here's how they work:

Smoking Everywhere E-Cigarette performs just like a traditional cigarette. It looks like, feels like and tastes like a real cigarette and also distributes the same pleasures of smoking a traditional cigarette, but without all the harmful effects of a traditional cigarette.

Smoking Everywhere E-Cigarette is driven by a micro-electronic technology. The actual cigarette body is made up of 3 parts: a nicotine cartridge, an atomization chamber, a smart chip with a lithium battery. In the front tip of the device there is an operating indicator light, that lights up when you use the Smoking Everywhere E-Cigarette (puff on), just like a real cigarette gets red at the tip while smoking. One of the most attractive part of the Smoking Everywhere E-Cigarette is the atomization chamber device that when puffed on creates a vapor like smoke, just like a real cigarette. This vapor is a result of the nicotine that is found in the cartridge, heating up by the atomizer device and creating vapor smoke, but without any smell of smoking real tobacco. This is what the smoker gets, the nicotine hit that smokers crave, and the smoke like illusion, but without having to smoke a real cigarette.

It costs around $150 for the kit, and $10 a pop for the flavored nicotine cartridges. Apparently these things (or something like them) are already becoming popular in Europe and Japan—but I gotta say at least two things bug me about it: Despite their posturing of being a healthy alternative to cigarettes, an addiction is still an addiction, and it still enables the need for nicotine. Secondly, seeing those guys in the mall sucking on fake looking smokes reminded me of my nephew puffing on Spider-Man Candy Cigarettes.

I guess the question is… WOULD YOU BE CAUGHT DEAD DOING IT?

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