






Lockridge, 27, credits vaping for reduced nicotine intake -- he's down to 6-milligram juices -- but he also just enjoys the bar atmosphere, like hanging out at a neighborhood watering hole.


Early e-cig prototypes were introduced in the mid-2000s, but refined devices -- many manufactured by the big tobacco companies -- have grown in popularity worldwide in the past few years. Vaping has been big in Southern California, and the trend recently spread to the Bay Area, where you can find at least a dozen dedicated vape shops in San Francisco alone, not to mention e-cig and vaping supplies available at regular smoke shops across the region. Many users also modify the devices to vape marijuana or other drugs.

Some e-cig brands resemble real cigarettes, glowing on the tip when you inhale. Others look like small mechanical cylinders; users joke they're "Star Wars" light sabers. Some are bejeweled with bling and come in more colors than an iPhone 5C.

In the past few months, e-cigarettes have been making news -- and not necessarily in a good way. While proponents rave that they're a great way to kick the tobacco habit, public health officials and government bodies -- from Bay Area cities to state agencies to the FDA -- are pushing for more research, possible taxation and regulation under existing tobacco laws. Some fear the sweet flavors such as bubble gum and blueberry and the appealing lack of cigarette smoke will lure young people into the nicotine habit, even though it's illegal to sell them to minors. Most shop owners say they ask for ID.



At the moment, there is no regulation. Technically, it's legal to vape anywhere in California, even indoors. But even avid vape users say you have to be smart about it.

"There are certain places you want to be discreet," said Alex Westle, 25, of San Leandro, who says he smoked tobacco cigarettes for four years but now vapes "zeros" and works as a clerk at the It Is Vapor 5 shop in Hayward.



Indeed, as tobacco smokers are increasingly shunned and public puffing is restricted, it seems regular cigarettes are becoming passé -- a bygone 20th-century habit. Yet the act of smoking is still seen as cool, and e-cigs give people the oral gratification and nicotine that still provides an addictive buzz.




"It's almost a collectibles thing now," Bongbonga said.

His clientele is 60 to 70 percent male in the 18-to-30 age range, with "a lot of minorities," and for some reason a lot of nurses and firefighters, he added.

Lockridge vapes "for dating reasons, too," he said. "A lot of women don't want to date a smoker, don't want to kiss an ashtray."

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