Dosing device to provide vaporized medicament to the lungs as a fine

Abstract

A medicament dosing device capable of administering a vaporized medicament in the form of tiny aerosol particles to the mouth and lungs of the user at a substantially constant concentration level. In a particularly preferred embodiment the dosing device is used to provide nicotine to a cigarette smoker in a form and a dose that closely mimics a burning cigarette to satisfy the smoker's craving for nicotine, but without subjecting either the user or any non-users in the immediate vicinity to the tars and carbon monoxide of cigarette smoke. A preferred device comprises a battery powered resistance heater housed in a cigarette-shaped tube. A demand-operated switch is employed in the circuit so that as the user sucks air through the tube in a manner similar to puffing on a cigarette, energy is supplied to the resistance heater which vaporizes the nicotine. Because the system vaporizes the medicament being administered only upon activation of the demand-operated switch, the concentration of the medicament will be substantially constant each time the user sucks on the mouthpiece end of the cigarette-shaped tube, regardless of the length of the time intervals which pass between successive inhalations.