“Nicotine is addictive. “
People say that and three years ago or so Harvard tried to show it but they couldn’t. In the usual double blind they pumped nicotine into people and when they cut it off there was zero withdrawal and the nicotine group and the placebo group were indistinguishable. Smoking is addictive as hell but nicotine may not be the culprit.
“Smoking is addictive as hell but nicotine may not be the culprit.”
Well what about all these teens who seem to be hooked on nicotine “vapes”? As I understand it, a good portion of these vape products use synthesized nicotine that was never part of any tobacco plant.
You could be right about that. Smoking is addictive but it may or may not be the nicotine. They added a lot of other ingredients, chemicals etc to cigarettes. Ammonia and sugar among others. When I smoked, I would go out of my way to buy Nat Sherman cigarettes. I started rolling my own and the owner of the tabacco store had his own blends that were just tobacco. He sold me on buying Nat Sherman’s because they were supposedly also just pure tobacco. Eventually I would order them online or find them at a few places nearby. I’d spend a lot of money on them because only tobacconists and boutique liquor stores had them and I’d buy several cartons (which was only 5 packs per carton) at a time. Much more expensive than generic gas station cigs.
I often wonder if it was easier to quit because I smoked pure tobacco vs the chemically tainted brands. I can’t know for sure. I did miss the smoking part, but didn’t really have any physical withdrawals. You could call it the oral fixation or as I say it, it was the feeling of “affection” - hot smoke in my throat and lungs. It’s a sensation. Maybe a character flaw, I dunno. But even as a smoker I was as cautious or conscientious as I could be about what I was smoking. And the good thing about it was that none of my Marlboro light smoking friends would bum a smoke off me. They hated my Nat Sherman’s. But that was when I was in my 20’s and early 30s. It’s been decades since I touched anything with tobacco. I don’t mind if people smoke around me. But even hanging with my neighbors and they smoke cigars and drink, I just have a drink and enjoy their company.
It’s the nicotine. Aside from the pleasure of inhaling, taste, whatever. I got majorly addicted to nicotine gum.