BOSTON – Boston retailers “are rushing to sell electronic cigarettes,” the Boston Globe wrote earlier this week, motivated by Lorillard which has been offering retailers display samples and encouraging them to stock tobacco-free smokes.

According to Nikysha Harding, director of the Boston Public Health Commission’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, the city has issued 61 permits to sell electronic cigarettes since March, more than five times the number that it awarded during the same period last year. Last month, the city issued 28 permits, compared to three during June 2012.

“The Lorillard reps have been coming into stores and giving them free samples, or saying this is a new product,” Harding said.

John Nguyen owns a convenience store in Dorchester called Maria Store, and he’s hoping the new city permit he received to sell e-cigarettes will stimulate his overall cigarette sales, which have been slow lately.

“It’s another way for us to generate income,” Nguyen said.

Massachusetts doesn’t track the number of e-cigarette retailers.  And while they’re currently sold across the state, many communities have recently joined Boston, which passed regulations in 2011 that treat e-cigarettes like tobacco products, banning them from the workplace and restricting them to adults. Currently, the state does not prohibit sales to minors nor does it curb their use in public places.