According to the press release: "Like conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) may function as a “gateway drug”—a drug that lowers the threshold for addiction to other substances, such as marijuana and cocaine—according to the 120th Shattuck lecture, presented to the Massachusetts Medical Society by Columbia researchers Denise and Eric Kandel and published today in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine." ...

The rest of the story is that there simply is no evidence at the current time that electronic cigarettes are serving as a gateway to youth smoking. It may actually be the case that electronic cigarettes serve as an inhibitor of smoking initiation by getting a youth used to a flavorful experience, thus making it less likely - not more likely - that the youth will move on to the harsh taste of tobacco.

The European Respiratory Society, then, is opposed to the use of e-cigarettes at the present time in the United States. What this means is that the ERS would rather see smokers continue to use tobacco cigarettes than quit smoking by switching to electronic cigarettes.

Surprisingly, however, the next paragraph of the grant application abstract informs grant reviewers that the researchers actually know the results of this experiment before conducting it. The researchers tell the reviewers that:

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