JOHN LARSON:

Liquid nicotine is highly toxic. Too much can be lethal. Many of the new vapor entrepreneurs are small business. The owners of The Vapor Hut in Oklahoma City, for example, used to sell snow cones out of this truck. They now have six vape shops and a multimillion-dollar online business selling 140 flavors, which, even in absence of regulation, they are mixing in what they describe as clean rooms.

And they're just one of thousands of new small businesses now competing with big tobacco.

It feels like a million small businesses are crawling in over the walls into a business that you guys traditionally have relatively owned. I mean, are they a threat? Or, should I say, how much of a threat are they to you?