Smoker wants e-ciggie nicotine at a shop near him

Mark Greenhalgh says e-cigarettes have enabled him to cut his daily habit from 30 to three tobacco cigarettes. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Mark Greenhalgh credits the electronic cigarette with a dramatic improvement in his health.

Now, all he wants is to be able to buy the nicotine cartridges from a local shop rather than having to import them from China through the internet.

His wish may soon be fulfilled.

In what may become a test of the Health Ministry, a Christchurch importer whose nicotine-free e-cigarettes have been sold at malls, now plans to start supplying supply nicotine cartridges within months.

"We feel there will be strong demand for our product once nicotine is included in the ingredients," Full Life managing director Cecil Driver said.

The e-cigarette looks like a cigarette in a mouthpiece.

Battery powered, it produces an inhaled mist containing nicotine, the chemical that addicted smokers' brains crave.

Without the harmful chemicals of tobacco smoke, the nicotine is considered safe.

An Auckland University study reported in the Herald on Monday found e-cigarettes may have potential as a quit-smoking device, but the researchers said more trials were needed.

Some tobacco control experts are concerned e-ciggies could become an alternative path to nicotine addiction for teenagers.

Mr Greenhalgh, a 36-year-old father of three and web designer from West Harbour in Auckland, said he had not quit smoking completely by using an e-ciggie, but he had cut down from 30 tobacco cigarettes a day, to three.

Heavily addicted to nicotine, he considers the device an alternative to smoking tobacco - one which has greatly reduced the harm of his habit.

"Within three or four days of using it I noticed a huge improvement in my overall health. I woke up in the morning and I could breathe. It's absolutely fantastic."

His smoker's cough is gone and, although he has not done the sums, he expects he is saving a lot of money.

Full Life is one of two importers of non-nicotine e-cigarettes. It was selling them in two malls, Sylvia Park in Auckland and Northlands in Christchurch.

This has stopped temporarily but it has plans for it to resume and expand. Most of its sales are online.

Its nicotine cartridges will sell at $18 for five, which is the equivalent of about 100 cigarettes. The e-cigarette packs start online at $90.

A New Zealand pharmacy is selling nicotine cartridges and e-cigarettes online.

The legality of New Zealand sales is a grey area. If therapeutic claims were made, such as efficacy in helping to quit smoking, the device would be considered a medicine and need a Medicines Act licence, a costly and lengthy process.

Christchurch public health specialist Dr Murray Laugesen suggests the nicotine e-cigarettes could be sold under the Smokefree Environments Act for recreational use as a cheaper and safer alternative to tobacco.

He wants the Health Ministry to write regulations under that act to ensure the safety of e-cigarettes.

But the ministry said nicotine e-cigarettes were considered to be a medicine and were not licensed, so "distribution would be an offence".