SALEM, OR – The Oregon Legislature is considering taxing electronic cigarettes, the San Francisco Gate reports.

Democratic Rep. Phil Barnhart, the chairman of the House Revenue Committee, said the state should consider taxing e-cigarettes because, like tobacco cigarettes, they contain nicotine.

"I'm always interested in keeping drugs away from kids and generating some money," Barnhart said.

Other lawmakers said talk of taxation is premature pending further data about e-cigarettes.

"If there's a thought that someday we might tax these things as we do cigarettes, it would seem odd that we would disincentivize people from moving away from something that's dangerous to something that's less so," said Rep. Cliff Bentz.

While the state may decide to tax e-cigarettes, it’s unclear how it would assess the charge, the Revenue Department’s Deanna Mack said.

"We haven't had a chance to do a complete assessment on this, but we know that it is an issue and it's something we're looking into," Mack said.

Nu Mark LLC, which is developing e-cigarettes for Altria Group Inc., urged caution on the issue.

"Nu Mark believes that governments should refrain at this point from taxing new nicotine-containing products altogether until there is a better understanding of where the consumers ultimately land with this emerging category, and to allow regulators to assess the appropriate scope of regulations for these products," said spokesman David Sutton.