6 ms·

>What's the problem with recreational ingestion of nicotine? It's a light stimulant; I'm not sure why this is any worse than caffeine. And certainly isn't worse

by jgroome 13y ago

>What's the problem with recreational ingestion of nicotine? It's a light stimulant; I'm not sure why this is any worse than caffeine. And certainly isn't worse than other medications like opiates or amphetamines. You're not wrong. But that's the problem - it's not enough to say "sure X is harmful, but so's Y, so it's alright". Ingesting nicotine by itself is a hell of a lot less harmful than taking it with tar and everything else that comes in a normal cigarette. But it's still a highly addictive substance, and personally, my concern is that marketing something highly addictive to the public (and, dare I say it, young people) is really seedy.

Semaphor 13y ago
> But it's still a highly addictive substance I'd call it slightly addictive. It seems it only becomes highly addictive in concert with other ingredients of tobacco smoke, at least that's what the German Wikipedia [1] has and it references [2,3,4,5,6,7] (I didn't read those myself as I can't say I understand their terminology) [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotin https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotin [2] http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v30/n4/full/1300586a.html http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v30/n4/full/1300586a.html [3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9089846 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9089846 [4] http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/tobacco/de/l-2/4.htm#0 http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_la... [5] http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/1/75.short http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/1/75.short [6] http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n8/full/1300987a.html http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n8/full/1300987a.html [7] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53018/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53018/
seanmcdirmid 13y ago
But its not addictive. I totally wish it was, but its not. The addictive part about smoking is psychological, placing the nicotine into a pill, gum, or a vapour pipe doesn't really help you stop smoking.
- jasomill 13y ago
  It sure did for me — I went from a twenty year long, two pack a day cigarette habit to e-cigarettes a month ago. I immediately preferred vaporization to smoking, and honestly haven't wanted an ordinary cigarette since.
  - seanmcdirmid 13y ago
    I tried e-cigs last year. They weren't that robust (I ordered a Chinese package from Taobao) and didn't do anything for me besides break. Maybe I'll try again when I can find something higher end.

by jgroome 13y ago

Semaphor 13y ago

> But it's still a highly addictive substance I'd call it slightly addictive. It seems it only becomes highly addictive in concert with other ingredients of tobacco smoke, at least that's what the German Wikipedia [1] has and it references [2,3,4,5,6,7] (I didn't read those myself as I can't say I understand their terminology) [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotin https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotin [2] http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v30/n4/full/1300586a.html http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v30/n4/full/1300586a.html [3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9089846 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9089846 [4] http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/tobacco/de/l-2/4.htm#0 http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_la... [5] http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/1/75.short http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/1/75.short [6] http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n8/full/1300987a.html http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n8/full/1300987a.html [7] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53018/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53018/

seanmcdirmid 13y ago

But its not addictive. I totally wish it was, but its not. The addictive part about smoking is psychological, placing the nicotine into a pill, gum, or a vapour pipe doesn't really help you stop smoking.

jasomill 13y ago
It sure did for me — I went from a twenty year long, two pack a day cigarette habit to e-cigarettes a month ago. I immediately preferred vaporization to smoking, and honestly haven't wanted an ordinary cigarette since.
- seanmcdirmid 13y ago
  I tried e-cigs last year. They weren't that robust (I ordered a Chinese package from Taobao) and didn't do anything for me besides break. Maybe I'll try again when I can find something higher end.