Smoking-Substitute Vaporizer Gets Thumbs-Up

Review calls the pocket device for consuming the plant matter of your choice "the iPod of vaporizers"

I've been in the process of quitting smoking for nearly two years. It's been an uphill battle of false starts, nicotine withdrawals, elephantine levels of caffeine and an angry spouse.

I want to quit. Desperately. It's just too damn bad I love tobacco and its wonderfully stimulating effects. So since I gave up the cigarette habit, I've been keeping a close eye on the world of vaporizers. …

Then there's the Pax, a pocket-sized, rechargeable vaporizer that costs $250. It's designed in San Francisco by Ploom and manufactured in China. It's more attractive and more user-friendly than any other vaporizer I've seen. After a few weeks of using it, I believe it could do for alternative smoking methods what the iPod did for MP3s — take an existing, but nascent, technology and propel it into the mainstream.