The FDA wants to regulate electronic cigarettes as drug devices, just as nicotine gum and smoking cessation products are regulated. Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered tubes that turn nicotine-laced liquid into a vapor.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision that electronic cigarettes are not drugs or devices unless they are marketed for therapeutic purposes.

In 2009, the FDA was given the authority to regulate tobacco products that are not drugs or devices.

Electronic cigarettes, marketed under names such as NJOY, mimic the act of smoking and include nicotine, but do not emit the same type of odor or ash.