I’m just not prepared to give my opinion about e-cigarettes because I’m as envious as I can be. I’m desperate for a piece of chocolate cake right now but I have to suffer because there is no digital solution for my cravings. Yet, those who are addicted to cigarettes now have a solution called e-cig. Using technology that turns nicotine-infused propylene glycol into an inhalable vapor, e-cigarettes smoke almost like the real thing.

While the news media is just now declaring the e-cig is all the rage in the United States, I first saw it almost a year and a half ago when my friend Nadia from Bologna, Italy lit one up in my Miami apartment. Nadia has been a serious smoker her entire life and cannot be without a smoke for more than an hour. I know that many of you will have plenty to say about that, but Europeans and Asians don’t have the same attitude we do about smoking. They would rather have a cigarette than a slice of pizza. It doesn’t compute for me, but it does for the cigarette smokers, who are skinny as can be.

The e-cig was new to Nadia at the time, too, but I could see that it saved her from going nuts for a smoke. It was much more money than the price of a regular cigarette, but you could tell that was not even a consideration. At the time Nadia didn’t even want to face a flight across the ocean without the ability to smoke. When I questioned whether the airlines allowed e-cigs to be lit up, the answer was that every row had a user. I don’t know if Nadia is smoking the real thing or an e-cig at home in Italy now, but I will find out more next Christmas when she visits again.

Meanwhile, my substitute for food is chewing gum. Three o’clock every day is a killer for me. I just want to eat the refrigerator. I run for a pack of gum. Stick by stick, I complete the pack. I’m chewing now as I write this post. I need my mouth to be chewing something when I write, when I create. It’s all part of the process to me. I chew and the words come flying out. No gum, I get stumped.

Everyone has their schtick. Figure this, e-cigarettes are still a small percentage of the $80-billion-a-year smoking market in the United States. In Europe, however, the practice known as vaping is growing like crazy. E-cigs are so popular that the British government wants to treat it as medicine just to prove that it’s perfectly safe. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States is not so sure and is looking into the possibility of regulating it. Everyone wants to know the public health benefits or risks.

Meanwhile, I view it as a gadget that should be accompanied by an e-coffee.