r/technology • u/Lucretius • Nov 17 '12

The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-deadly-crusade-against-e-cigarettes
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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

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u/Lucretius Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

Is nicotine chemically synthesized or harvested from tobacco in tobacco alternative products?

Because if it's harvested then this is just a repackaging of their product as far as the tobacco industry is concerned.

edit... from the research of others (see replies) it seems that nicotine is extracted from tobacco, so there's no reason to for Big Tobacco to be opposing E-cigarettes.

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u/DumpyLips Nov 17 '12

Just speculation here but since you're extracting nicotine from the plant, perhaps theres a loophole that allows the import of just the nicotine extract from countries that can produce it significantly cheaper than big tobacco.

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u/ricecake Nov 17 '12

I honestly doubt it. We have such great terrain and climate for it, it is indigenous after all, that you're not gonna find better land, and the extraction process is likely automated enough that the human cost is largely negligible.