Richard Leiby of the Washington Post had an interesting first experience with electronic cigarettes:  He was invited to imbibe in as much e-cig nicotine as he wanted while in the offices of the American Legacy Foundation, home of perhaps one of the most influential tobacco-fighting organizations in the US.

As Leiby notes, "I had lunch, a cup of coffee and a smoke the other day at the offices of the American Legacy Foundation in downtown Washington. I puffed away for a good 15 minutes, savoring the irony.

Here I was, surrounded by zealous anti-smokers —- Legacy is among the nation’s most influential and well-funded tobacco-fighting organizations —- yet I had been invited over to partake of all the nicotine I could handle.

Of course there was a catch: What I puffed on wasn’t a Marlboro or any other combustible cancer stick. I didn’t need an ashtray. The “smoke” was more accurately fog —- small, vaporous clouds. I was trying out a controversial new nicotine-delivery device that somewhat resembles a cigarette but is actually a plastic tube with a glowing LED at its tip.

“If you just suck on it, it should work,” scientist David B. Abrams said, handing me an Njoy brand e-cigarette. (That’s “e” for electronic; nothing to do with the Internet, except that the devices are sold there in abundance.) Inside the tube is a lithium battery that warms and aerosolizes a nicotine solution; Njoy says it works like a vaporizer.

After a few puffs, I found myself wreathed in a fine mist of nostalgia. An e-cig supplies none of the flavor or warmth of a real smoke, yet I was transported back to the days when smoking didn’t equal social opprobrium, when hacks like me hammered on typewriters with nicotine-stained fingers, inhaling madly as deadline loomed.

In a word, I got a buzz.

True, you might be sucking on plastic, but the experience is, as Abrams said, “close to the real deal.”

To read more of the article, check out Leiby's post at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution web site.