Eddie Schmitt no longer has to wait for smoke breaks at work or brave chilling winds outside airports and bars to sate his nicotine cravings.

The 28-year-old North Side advertising analyst’s newfound freedom comes in the form of electronic cigarettes. They’re made of a metal tube, a battery and a cartridge filled with flavored nicotine. Schmitt inhales and gets what he says is a warm, vaporous hit without producing a smelly cloud of smoke like a regular cigarette.

It might soon be slightly tougher to get that type of nicotine fix in Illinois. Lawmakers and anti-smoking groups are trying to ban the sale of e-cigarettes, citing the federal Food and Drug Administration’s lack of approval.

The ban recently sailed through the Illinois Senate on a 49-4 vote and is now under consideration in the House. While the measure would prevent convenience stores, tobacco shops and mall kiosks from selling e-cigarettes, a big loophole remains — there’s no way to stop smokers from buying them online.

“If there are things that are (FDA-)approved to help people curb the habit of smoking, I’m all for it,” said sponsoring Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan. “Whatever the FDA approves, we will approve.”

Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, who voted against the measure, said the FDA is not a standard the state must use to decide which products can be sold.

“What right do we have to say a person can’t market or have a product that has not been proven to be a problem?” Syverson asked.

Last summer, the FDA said it found a chemical used in antifreeze and other toxic chemicals in a small sample of e-cigarettes the agency analyzed. The FDA tried to block imported e-cigarettes, but a Washington, D.C., court ruled that FDA can’t regulate the products. In its appeal, the FDA argues e-cigarettes should be considered the same as gum and patches that help smokers try to quit. The agency can regulate those products. The lower court’s decision was put on hold, the FDA said, as parties continue to fight over the issue.

In Springfield, lobbyists on both sides of the issue have been lighting up the Capitol.

Even though e-cigarettes lack the federal sign-off, that hasn’t snuffed out efforts to market them as a way to help people quit smoking or as a healthier, tobacco-free alternative for chain smokers.

James Watt, vice chairman of the Electronic Cigarette Association, acknowledged that some of the more than 100 U.S. suppliers embellish the product’s potential health benefits.

“Like in any industry, there are suppliers who are making marketing claims that maybe they shouldn’t be making,” Watt said.

But Watt, who estimated at least 100,000 people use e-cigarettes, also said the FDA’s research was not thorough.

Kathy Drea, a lobbyist for the American Lung Association in Illinois, said false advertising along with conflicting studies on the product’s safety are reasons to ban the battery-charged smoking devices.

“We don’t know what is in that vapor,” Drea said. “We do know it’s not just water.”

While efforts to regulate or ban e-cigarettes play out at statehouses across the country, those who smoke them are keeping tabs.

“If they move to outlaw the e-cigs, I will stock up on enough supplies to last me years,” said Schmitt, who credits his $55 e-cigarette with helping him stop his five-cigarettes-a-day habit. “This has been a miracle for many smokers, including myself.”

Illinois Senator Terry Link has introduced a bill (SB3174 ) that reads “Amends the Tobacco Accessories and Smoking Herbs Control Act. Provides that a product containing or delivering nicotine intended or expected for human consumption, or any part of such a product, that is not a tobacco product shall not be distributed or sold in the State or to consumers in the State unless it has been approved or otherwise certified for legal sale by the United States Food and Drug Administration as a tobacco use cessation, harm reduction, or modified-risk product, or for other medical purposes, and is being marketed and sold solely for that approved purpose. Establishes penalties for violations.”

But the bill goes even further to attempt to give smokers no other options outside of big pharmaceutical products as alternatives, therefore creating a monopoly for them with products that only help less than 5% of smokers quit and leaving no other options for smokers. Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Provides that “tobacco product” is defined under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act rather than Illinois law. Deletes reference to “modified-risk product”.

Illinois Senator Terry Link has received thousands and thousands of dollars from almost all of the major pharmaceutical companies, many of which produce smoking cessation products and are scared to death of the electronic cigarette according to an industry report titled “E-Cigarettes Will Revolutionize The Face Of Tobacco Smoking And Could Pose A Threat To the Smoking Cessation Market”.

The FDA is completely run by the Pharmaceutical companies also, so it is criminals supporting criminals, supporting criminals.

A list of the known contributors in the pharmaceutical industry to the campaign of Senator Terry Link are as follows.

ABBOTT LABORATORIES
JOHNSON & JOHNSON SERVICES
NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS
PFIZER
PHRMA
SCHERING-PLOUGH
ASTRAZENECA
AVENTIS PHARMACEUTICALS
BAXTER HEALTHCARE
ELI LILLY & CO
MERCK & CO
TAKEDA PHARMACEUTICALS NORTH AMERICA
GLAXOSMITHKLINE

There was a money trail last year that the special interest groups like ASH were directly funded in their campaigns to ban the electronic cigarette by these some of these same pharmaceutical companies. The route of demonizing the electronic cigarette with scares, misleading and lies failed after the public was educated on the electronic cigarette and the propaganda was stopped once their folly, bias and special interest in banning the product for corporate profit was exposed to the public.

Now it appears that the way that they are choosing to stop the popular electronic cigarette is through writing new laws that would effectively ban their sale on a state by state basis.

Again, we will step up and expose the corruption, and with elections soon coming, there may be a chance for smokers to put a stop to the carnage and put these senators that are sold out to private interest over the interest of the public.

We will make the actions of these politicians made known to the public on a regular basis concerning this bill and any other bills that they are involved with that they have direct funding from that may or will have a direct positive impact on the donors and the opposite effect on the people and smokers.

Illinois Senator Terry Link is not the only one in Illinois on the bandwagon. There were many other senators( see Mattie Hunter’s take below, she is really rolling in drug money) and state legislators that jumped aboard that also have direct funding from one or more of the above list of pharmaceutical companies.

Their names are as follows:

Sen. Terry Link – Jacqueline Y. Collins – Mattie Hunter<( over 800,000.00 from the same pharmaceutical companies as listed above), Edward D. Maloney, Kwame Raoul, Ira I. Silverstein, William Delgado, Martin A. Sandoval and Louis S. Viverito
March 18th, 2010 Ecigarettesnationwide