New product invites smokers to ‘lite up’

Ron MacDonald, 43, leaned back in his chair in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale and puffed on an electric “cigarette” that looked more like a fountain pen.

GRAPHIC: Diagram of the Crown7 cigarette

Instead of traditional smoke, he exhaled a watery mist that quickly disappeared.

No lingering clouds.

No tobacco smell.

MacDonald, a Scottsdale entrepreneur and former stock and investment broker, smokes traditional cigarettes when he’s not promoting his newest product, the Crown7.

“The staff knows me here and they’ve seen my demonstration before, so nobody says I can’t smoke in the lobby,” he says.

A waitress, who watched the mist come-and-go, took his order without saying a word about the hotel’s no-smoking rules.

The Crown7 replicates the act of smoking using a 1 and 1/2-inch nicotine cartridge, a microchip and propelyne glycol that produces the mist.

The nicotine makes up 6 percent of the cigarette, but it has no carcinogens, according to MacDonald.

It contains only a tobacco flavor.

“It’s not second-hand smoke,” he said of the mist.

“The propelyne glycol is used in toothpaste and mouth wash. And there’s no residual odor on clothing or the room.”

Not everybody agrees on merits of the device, however. Leland Fairbanks, the driving force behind a statewide vote last year that bans smoking in public and workplaces, called the Crown7 another attempt to get around the anti-smoking laws.

“Most of the health groups see this as just another gimmick to promote smoking,” said Fairbanks, founder of Arizonans Concerned About Smoking. “If it were used in a public place, it would be breaking the law.”

Scott Adams, owner of McDuffy’s Grille in Chandler, said he was recently approached by a customer who wanted to smoke the smokeless cigarette inside the restaurant and bar.

“I said ‘No’ because I didn’t feel it was right,” Adams said. “So, I pointed him to our outdoor patio where smoking is permitted.”

MacDonald, who learned about the smokeless cigarettes from several local investors, visited the manufacturer in Beijing.

He purchased the distribution rights for the United States a year ago and has since been selling the product exclusively on the Internet at www.crown7.com, but that may soon change.

“First, I’m planning on going to a couple of towns in California soon with my lawyer to openly challenge their local laws that prohibit smoking not only in restaurants and bars, but everywhere,” MacDonald said.

“I’m going back to Beijing to begin negotiating to purchase the factory where they’re made. Meanwhile, a new electric cigarette is coming out that looks a lot more like, well, a cigarette.”

MacDonald also offers a cigar and pipe that operates similarly. They range in price from $99.95 for the cigarette, $64.95 for the cigar and $149.95 for the pipe.

“The Crown7 satisfies all of the smoker’s needs, physical, emotional and psychological,” said MacDonald.

The company’s slogan is “Lite up. When you want. Where you want.”

MacDonald said sales during the past three months reached more than $200,000, and he expects to earn more than $30 million in gross revenues next year by adding distributors.

The ultimate goal is to sell the product at retail stores, including smoke shops and taverns.