Tobacco came under the watch of the FDA since the 2009 tobacco bill. Right now, ecigs are basically not regulated at all. They are considered "unregulated tobac

Tobacco came under the watch of the FDA since the 2009 tobacco bill. Right now, ecigs are basically not regulated at all. They are considered "unregulated tobacco products". There is a movement within the industry to regulate ourselves, but the FDA will probably step in no matter what. At the end of every year, the government sort of lists its plans for the year. The past two year, the FDA has said that they would "deem" ecigs in April and get the ball rolling toward regulation but it hasn't happened yet. Ecigs are a threat to ineffective methods of quitting smoking like patches and gums, so big pharma initially got behind total prohibition. The FDA lost in court on ecigs being medical devices, but the ruling only technically applies to the one company involved, so customs still seizes shipments of equipment coming in from China. Adoption is still growing rapidly, witht he total market in the US this year projected to double to over $1 billion. Big tobacco has now started to enter the market. Swisher Sweets has a brand of ecig. Lorillard bought a major player called Blu and Reynolds is poised to enter at some point. Altria/Phillip Morris hasn't done much yet, but all of these companies are also marketing products they hope to get the classification "reduced exposure" and "modified risk" such as wood sticks coated with tobacco goop and candy-like lozenges. A lot of ecig companies are tiny and scared of burdensome regulation which will put them out of business.