<story><title>Nicotine (2016)</title><url>https://gwern.net/nicotine</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>standardUser</author><text>The addictive properties of nicotine aren&amp;#x27;t magic. It requires sustained, repeated consumption, like any physically addicting substances. And research has shown that different people have different propensities for addiction (same with cocaine and alcohol).&lt;p&gt;But if you do become addicted to nicotine, and are one of the people with a high propensity for nicotine addiction, you&amp;#x27;re fucked. It&amp;#x27;s one of the most challenging addictions to quit, as we all know. Is this a risk you want to take for some mild stimulation? As a former smoker, I can only believe that anyone who takes this risk does not fully appreciate the consequences. The exception might be people who have consumed nicotine on and off but have never had addictive tendencies. Those people definitely exist, but it still seems like a risky thing to assume about yourself since being wrong could be life altering.&lt;p&gt;I also take exception to the articles emphasis that moving on to cigarettes is the only real risk. Yes, that&amp;#x27;s where the majority of the health problems come from. But don&amp;#x27;t underestimate the negative consequences of a physical addiction, even one that does not lead to health problems. It is not fun to be addicted to anything that contorts your body and mind outside of your control.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anbende</author><text>Research anecdote here. I’m a psychologist in a different area and a friend who did his PhD in cocaine research with rats told me this.&lt;p&gt;Addiction is highly dependent on the immediacy of the drug’s effect on the brain. For this reason, people who smoke cocaine (directly or as crack) are highly likely to get addicted. It may be the majority. People who snort it are less likely to get addicted. And there are a lot of casual cocaine users (snorting) who do not develop a long term life altering addiction. I believe he (researcher friend) said it was 10-15% who go on to become addicted. Still substantial and dangerous but much less than smoking.&lt;p&gt;His research was looking at delayed onset of cocaine in rats after they pushed their cocaine lever. At longer delays more and more rats showed little interest.&lt;p&gt;This is part of the overall addiction picture. Decoupling drug use behaviors (smoking, snorting, and lever pressing) from noticeable drug onset prevents reinforcement of the behavior and makes addiction less likely, often much less.&lt;p&gt;This would explain why nicotine patches and gum would potentially be much less addictive than cigarettes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Nicotine (2016)</title><url>https://gwern.net/nicotine</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>standardUser</author><text>The addictive properties of nicotine aren&amp;#x27;t magic. It requires sustained, repeated consumption, like any physically addicting substances. And research has shown that different people have different propensities for addiction (same with cocaine and alcohol).&lt;p&gt;But if you do become addicted to nicotine, and are one of the people with a high propensity for nicotine addiction, you&amp;#x27;re fucked. It&amp;#x27;s one of the most challenging addictions to quit, as we all know. Is this a risk you want to take for some mild stimulation? As a former smoker, I can only believe that anyone who takes this risk does not fully appreciate the consequences. The exception might be people who have consumed nicotine on and off but have never had addictive tendencies. Those people definitely exist, but it still seems like a risky thing to assume about yourself since being wrong could be life altering.&lt;p&gt;I also take exception to the articles emphasis that moving on to cigarettes is the only real risk. Yes, that&amp;#x27;s where the majority of the health problems come from. But don&amp;#x27;t underestimate the negative consequences of a physical addiction, even one that does not lead to health problems. It is not fun to be addicted to anything that contorts your body and mind outside of your control.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwbadubadu</author><text>As a former smoker I think you didn&amp;#x27;t fully read the article und understood author&amp;#x27;s and other&amp;#x27;s thesis that it is actually not the nicotine that makes for the strong cigarette addiction.</text></comment>