Two Prince Edward Island business students hope to draw success from smokeless cigarettes.
Matthew Gallant, 25, of Summerside, and Steve Dow, 23, of Charlottetown hope to ink a deal with a Hong Kong supplier of electronic cigarettes that would allow the pair to distribute the product in Atlantic Canada.
"I thought bringing this market to the Maritimes would be a great idea and a great venture to try," said Dow, a smoker who is taking business administration at CompuCollege.
Dow and Gallant, a non-smoker and a Holland College business administration student, are starting small. They eventually hope to have a storefront but currently have only purchased a small amount of product.
They have supplied some electronic cigarettes to be sold at the Frugal Smoke Shop in Charlottetown.
The typical electronic cigarette is made of stainless steel, has a chamber for storing liquid nicotine in various concentrations, is powered by a rechargeable battery and resembles a real cigarette. Users puff on it as they would a real cigarette, but they do not light it and it produces no smoke.
Rather, it produces a fine, heated mist, which is absorbed into the lungs.
The World Health Organization does not consider it to be a legitimate therapy for smokers trying to quit.
Marketers of the electronic cigarette typically describe it as a means to help smokers break their addictions to tobacco. Some have even gone so far as to imply that WHO views it as a legitimate nicotine replacement therapy like nicotine gum, lozenges and patches.
But WHO knows no evidentiary basis for the marketers' claim that the electronic cigarette helps people quit smoking.
Dow says he and his business partner won't try to dispute the World Health Organization's assessment but rather they are promoting the electronic cigarette simply as a smoke-free product.
Dow says the cost of electronic cigarettes range dramatically in price, from $50 to $400, depending on quality and source.
The pair's company is registered as Maritime Global Distributors and their website, currently under construction, is www.95cig.ca.
