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• FDA crackdown on e-cigarettes draws local criticism  

But Ainsworth's supply of the electronic cigarettes, which dispense a cloud of nictotine-infused vapor by means of an atomizer, is now threatened.

While some manufacturers of the device say they're not intended to help people quit smoking, the Food and Drug Administration considers them an unapproved drug-delivery device and has been preventing shipments from entering the country since earlier this year.

"We don't know what their contents are, we have no idea," Karen Riley, a spokeswoman for the agency, told The Enterprise by phone from Washington, D.C., adding that they are not permitted for sale until manufacturers submit data from clinical trials proving that they are safe.

People who sell the devices disagree.

The contents are known, and they're safe, according to Brandon Allen, owner of Port Arthur-based eSmokerShop.com. . . .

"Even though it's not FDA approved, anyone with half a brain can see that it's better than tobacco," he said. . . .

"If there's not a ban, I see it taking over," he said. "Honest to God, I see it pushing Big Tobacco out of the way."

In a lawsuit filed against the FDA by Smoke Everywhere, the Florida-based electronic cigarette distributor maintains that its products are not drug delivery devices like a nicotine patch, which the FDA can regulate, but rather tobacco alternatives.

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Even though it's not FDA approved, anyone with half a brain can see that it's better than tobacco.
Brandon Allen, eSmokerShop.com, on the e-cigarette.