RICHMOND — Galen Kipe has not smoked a cigarette in more than three months.
He could not kick his habit of 17 years with nicotine patches or gum. He finally put away his Marlboro menthols for good by swapping them for electronic cigarettes, which look like the real thing and give him his nicotine fix but do not contain tobacco.
“It’s the closest thing to what I was doing before,’’ Kipe, 34, a steelworker from Asheboro, N.C., said. “I’m still getting the nicotine, but I don’t feel like I’m getting any kind of bad side effects. It can’t be any worse than actual cigarettes.’’
