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"You can actually get the same nicotine, but without all the harsh tar chemicals you can get," said Valete, who works at Vaping Apes.

We feel it is of utmost importance that this framework puts product quality and consumer safety as a priority, while reflecting the unique nature of the product — that they are not tobacco products and should thus not be regulated in the same way.

Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is calling on Health Canada to speed up the regulation of e-cigarettes. (Jacques Boissinot/CP) Barrette said he believes e-cigarettes are a powerful tool that can potentially help people quit smoking.

E-cigarettes are often described as a less dangerous alternative for regular smokers who can't or don't want to kick the habit. The battery-powered devices use a liquid to produce vapour, which is then inhaled. Some of the vapours are infused with nicotine, some aren't.

Vaping, charging and refilling are pretty much the basics. However, there are some of you who are unsure or who try to Macgyver your product into either working again or putting out more power. For that reason we thought it necessary to give you the lowdown on the things you absolutely should not be doing.

The debate: Back in the 1980's, it was the left-leaning progressives (then called "liberals") who led the charge for "harm reduction" practices. Supported by Democrat lawmakers, academics and scientists, the public health groups at the time argued that the public needed to be educated about using condoms to significantly reduce the risk of HIV and other STDs. They encouraged Sex Ed teachers to tell high school students that, if they decided not to remain abstinent, to at least use a condom.

The study, carried out by the internationally regarded Cochrane Library, found a third of long-term smokers were able to cut their cigarette consumption in half by using e-cigarettes.

"Despite the positive developments this year, we are concerned about the levels of e-cigarette use among teens that we are seeing," said Lloyd D. Johnston, Ph.D., principal investigator, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. "It would be a tragedy if this product undid some of the great progress made to date in reducing cigarette smoking by teens."

It is very difficult to inhale dangerous amounts of e-cigarettes - both smokers and vapers will feel nausea long before they were harming their bodies. They decide how much nicotine they inhale with the depth of each breath. Breathing in nicotine is a very fast way to get the drug into your bloodstream when you want. That's one reason a lot of smokers struggle with 'medicinal' sources of nicotine. With gum the nicotine peaks in the blood long after they put the patch on. So it's not just that the gum fails to produce instant satisfaction, it can create nausea when too much nicotine has been absorbed.

Manufacturers claim that electronic cigarettes are a safe alternative to conventional cigarettes. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has questioned the safety of these products.