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Canadian smokers may soon have a new alternative to lighting up a cigarette to soothe their need for nicotine -- and it comes in a bottle.

Nic Lite, a lemon-flavoured, water-based nicotine drink that contains four milligrams of organic nicotine -- equivalent to the amount of the drug found in two cigarettes -- may soon be landing a spot on store shelves on this side of the border.

In a statement released in June, the makers of Nic Lite said they plan to roll out the product in more than 50 U.S. airports, targeting nictoine-addicted airline passengers facing the agony of smoke-free flights.

"We attempted to find other products that might have the same biological effect on people to help them when they can't smoke, or in our case, when they can't smoke and shouldn't smoke,'' said Joseph Knight, CEO of the California-based Nico Worldwide Inc., the makers of Nic Lite.

"We tried a lot of different product combinations and herbs and things, and the only thing that really works is the nicotine molecule itself.''

Knight said his company has filed an application to Health Canada to bring the product to Canada.

"We're hoping that in the next two to three months we would have our clearances in place,'' Knight said in a phone interview from Oxnard, Calif.

The product is being touted as a way to cope with smoking bans, which proves timely for Ontario and Quebec where enclosed workplaces and public places went smoke-free on May 31.

Health Canada spokesman Paul Duchesne said the product would be labelled as a natural health product but isn't approved for sale in Canada.

"Health Canada will only authorize for sale those products which it deems of high quality and safe and effective for over-the-counter use,'' Duchesne wrote in an email to The Canadian Press.