You can get Propylene Glycol or vegetable glycerin and vape that.

It's apparently a thing, "nicotine free" vaping

Thanks for the confirmation!

That’s how I did it and what I recommend to my friends (who vape constantly). It’s two habits you have to beat, why not do them one at a time?

...vaping is fucking obnoxious for non smokers...

As a former smoker and non-smoker for a long time now, I disagree.

...clouds of awful smelling residue...

IME, most of the time it smells far better than cigarette smoke.

...and plastic shit everywhere.

Litterbugs are gonna litter, man. I know this because I live in a place with a very high concentration of them. Is the litterbug done with his drink, takeout, or other item that came in some disposable packaging? Is the trash can that's clearly visible from his current location more than two feet away? Then that packaging ends up directly on the sidewalk or tossed into the street.

Worse than that are litterbugs who are also dog owners. Their creed is "Pick up my dog's dogshit and put it in a trashcan? Hell no, fuck that, and fuck you!".

Whoa there.

Breathing air with more than ~12ug/m^3 of small particles is considered less than ideally healthy. (This is where PM2.5 comes from.)

Go check out the mass of fine particles per puff:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507187/#_sec_000047_

This is so many orders of magnitude above the “good” AQI threshold that it’s almost comical.

Now, sure, different particles have different health characteristics, but the stuff coming out of a vape isn’t water, and you’d better hope that it is many orders of magnitude less damaging than the fine particles that are found in the environment if you actually want to believe that your lungs are prepared to handle it.

(Okay, it’s obviously orders of magnitude less damaging than, say, wildfire smoke or brake dust or restaurant kitchen exhaust on a per-microgram basis, but the question is how many orders of magnitude less dangerous.)

P.S. I strongly suspect that there is one common dry aerosol that is genuinely harmless in moderate amounts: sodium chloride from sea spray. It’s highly soluble and found all over inside your body. I’m not sure to what extent air quality impact studies try to separate out the AQI impact from sea spray from everything else.

Here's a company with a product meant specifically for this. [0]

[0]: https://tryfum.com

That's how I quit cigarettes - got 0% liquids in a few flavours, hard-quit the smokes and puffed like crazy on a vape to assuage the habit. After around 3 months I noticed I'd stopped caring about the vapes so much and just put them down.

Worked well for me, might not work so well for others.

Personally I thought that was the whole deal with vapes, use them as a tool to beat the addiction to 'real' tobacco products, but it looks like the world proved me wrong on that one.

Indeed they are, and you should also minimize exposure to the fumes from cars/trucks/powerplants and try to improve indoor ventilation.

I don't generally suck on the tailpipe of my car like a cigarette or vape.

This has effectively been a product for many years, 22nd Century Group sells very low nicotine tobacco smoking cessation products.

The unhealthy part of smoking is the smoke, not the nicotine.

That has already been a thing that has existed.

I once successfully quit smoking by buying a pack of cigarettes made with tobacco that had been cleansed of its nicotine. I bought them one evening on the way home from work.

That first night was rough because nicotine withdraw be like that. The second day was still not great, but it was easier. By the third day, I'd had enough. On about the fourth day, I threw the rest away because they were just tiresome.

They were lousy. They tasted terrible compared to my usual brand. And smoking them did nothing to quench my addiction-driven craving for nicotine -- the reward for my brain and my body simply wasn't being delivered.

And it worked.

---

My theory for the method of operation goes something like this:

My brain was used to pushing the button and receiving candy, and it needed that candy (or at least it thought that it did).

But this was disruptive of that: The button was still there and I could push it freely. But no matter how many times I pushed it, no candy was received. This went on just long enough that I no longer felt compelled to need candy (because nicotine addiction had enough time to fade out).

We used to smoke clove cigarettes. They would crackle with oil when you inhaled.

That was hilarious but I hate how hard The Onion has to compete with reality now.

do I really have to mention that vaping and smoking use the same chemical addiction in comparable doses?

You're missing the very basic point that taking up cigarettes is just as bad and likely considerably worse.

You must be young.

They appear to think that cigarettes smell bad, yet their nicotine infusused fruit salad/cotton candy monstrosity is fine.

Yeah, so I have smoked for 80% of the last 30 years… usually between 1/2-1 pack/day. I’ve been cutting back by switching to vape, knowing that it only has nicotine and not the MAOI and other substances. Right before Labour Day weekend I ran out and decided to try going the weekend. It’s been 20 days now and I am starting to feel like the effects of the MAOI are starting to wear off. I still have nicotine cravings, but it’s once I firmly feel like the MAOI withdrawal is gone (probably another week or two) I plan to start breaking the habit with patches and maybe gum.

Step by step, I feel like it might actually stick for real this time. Every time I started up again in the past was contextual (eg a break up, out for drinks with friends, have a half drunk smoke and I’m hooked again). No longer have any smoker friends, no longer have significant drama in my life, hoping it’ll work out.

maois are what make tobacco more than just nicotine (in terms of both benefit potential and addiction potential). maios were the first ever anti depressant, cigarettes are therefore a valid anti depressant too. cigs are also correlated with testosterone. maybe there's an ulterior reason they are demonized?

Bonus virtue-signaling points for "plant-based alternative", although I had a different plant in mind when I read that phrase.

It literally is The Onion, from their print paper last year: https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1gz53b0/the_easiest_...

What is?

And carcinogenic

it also stops being unpleasant once your brain has associated it deeply with the dopamine

if anything, the strong smell and taste sensations makes it even more addictive

There was a rumour/some basic statistics that smokers were at more risk in bad cases of Covid but nevertheless were proportionally less likely to have heavy Covid.

But not in America? I mean, we have our little smoker subculture with at least some semblance of etiquette and shibboleths, and the protocols for bumming a cig (ideally, ask to buy one instead, whereupon the other party should just give you one, unless they're nearly out), and so on. We had ashtrays at the ends of the aisles in the grocery store, and restaurant hostesses asking us "smoking or non?" and bringing us ashtrays. People at work grumbling about smokers getting extra breaks all the time, and the smokers for their part having to hike to the smoking area (or enclosure, even). Common memories of the strange experience of being sent to the corner store at a one-digit age to buy a pack for someone. I'm sure that's not all there is to it but I can't think of anything else at the moment. Anyway, what are we missing? I think I sound a little bit defensive about whether America has a significant smoking culture, but I'm just curious.

I went to a Black Keys concert in 2007 or so that was sponsored by Camel cigarettes and they were giving out free packs of their newest variety at the door.

A lifelong chain smoker will smoke a cigarette in 1-2 minutes and light up another. 3-5 minutes is a relaxed casual smoke. Cigarettes were modified a decade or so ago to ensure that they go out quickly if not actively smoked. It's not even possible anymore to keep a cigarette burning for long enough for it to take 10 minutes.

This is all pedantic. The point is that you can chain smoke quite a lot if you're dedicated. I've never met anyone who smoked more than two packs a day regularly or maybe three on a crazy night out of drinking and smoking. 4-5 is crazy.

had one lung removed, and the other was probably close to worthless from smoking

Mid to late 70s? Their last years were nothing but medical issues (from the smoking, plus excessive drinking) and poor health. Certainly kept me from starting to smoke.

I know smokers who lived into their 90s, and non-smokers who died much younger

I hate this anecdata. I do know these too.

But statistics don't lie. The odd outlier is not relevant. How many times can you roll the dice and win the saving throw? Smoking kills, and when it doesn't it destroys well-being.

Even without the health issues smokers becoming absolute pricks because they didn't get their fix. Or how much imposing their cloud of dust is invasive, even in open air. I know, I've been there, I've been that guy. Stressing out because I had only two left in the pack on a Sunday. Rushing to buy a pack before the shop closes like my life depended on it. Snapping out when the effects wears off. Leaving the table at restaurants to get my fix. Barely able to get through an entire movie at the cinema, and as soon as credits roll, get out and immediately swallow an entire cigarette in under a minute.

Now that I'm out of it I can see the absolutely disrespectful behaviour, and in a way I understand because I've been there, I've been the addict that can't see how I harm not just me but others too. I've been the addict that keeps the blindfold of denial so that I can continue satisfying my craving.

And now life is _so much_ better without it. Much better energy, focus, willpower, and freedom.

There is _nothing_ positive about smoking. It's death in a tube, plain and simple.

My sister-in-law was so upset when we ran a 10K together, I beat her by 5 or 6 minutes, and when she found me at the finish line I was having a smoke.

Genetic lottery for sure. I’m still quitting but it’s not really because of acute or chronic health problems, mostly cost and being tired of stinking all the time.

There is no human on earth that can smoke continuously the entire day for very long

Out of curiosity how old are you? I remember plenty of places in my younger days where it was commonplace for people to light up their next cig off of their current one pretty much nonstop

I'm sure some people acclimate to it but if you give it a try I think you'll find first your throat will get burned, then you'll start to cough more and more, and eventually you'll throw up. And I think GP was suggesting that, beyond acclimating, there's also other demands on your time and you usually can't smoke through them all.

as a medication alternative there's saffron, which also helps (not as good)

Did you read gwerns post on it by any chance?

https://gwern.net/nicotine

I've come to a similar conclusion.

On one hand, yes, nicotine in many ways does deserve the reputation it's received. Then again, a lot of the blame should go more towards smoking rather than nicotine the substance.

Nicotine is highly addictive, but as you mentioned, the delivery method plays a huge role in its addictive potential, and most people don't realize this. The chances that you'll become addicted to patches is incredibly low. If they were that addictive, then they'd likely be way more effective in helping people quit smoking; in reality, it's somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of patch users who successfully end up quitting smoking that way. Even with the highest dose patches, the addiction potential is still relatively low because the patches release the nicotine over a very long period of time and make it difficult or impossible to associate the use of the substance with a ritualistic activity like lighting and puffing on a cigarette.

And yeah, it's not a subject you can really bring up with anyone besides recreational drug users. Very few will be receptive to the idea that nicotine has legitimate uses and can be used without getting addicted.

You:

  Only about 6% nicotine users manage to quit every year.

Your linked article:

  Yet, only about 6 percent of smokers are able to quit in a given year.

Other than when it talks about prescription smoking cessation tools, the article does not mention anything other than tobacco smokers. The last paragraph of the article actually discusses the observation that the ritual of smoking often provides substantial behavioral reinforcement to the smoker who is attempting to quit smoking.

I also note that I was able to quit nicotine cold-turkey after smoking cigarettes for two years. I've never been able to quit caffeine... and -although it is notably shorter in duration- caffeine withdrawal is WAY worse than nicotine withdrawal.

Nicotine isn't just 'extra effective caffeine.'

The research seems to indicate it's a cancer accelerant -- it doesn't cause cancer directly, but it promotes the growth and spread of existing tumors.

Studies suggest it does this through several pathways including:

(a) preventing cancer cells from self-destructing (b) making tumor cells divide more quickly (c) stimulating the growth of new blood vessels in and around tumors, helping them grow; and (d) helping cancer cells metastasize more easily by increasing mobility via epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

It also lowers the effectiveness of chemo and radiotherapy.

Admittedly, most of these are animal/lab studies, in part because it's hard to design a good study in humans since so many patients also use/used cigarettes and vapes, which confounds the results. Still, there's enough evidence out there to be cautious.

How did you taper off patches? Are you still on them?

I smoked for roughly 30 years and was not in very good shape when I gave up eight years ago - that improved rather a lot.

The problem is that nicotine is not the only addictive substance involved. If it was then you could chew gum, wear patches or whatever and off you go. There is an extremely complicated set of chemicals involved in fag smoke. There is also the habit effect and other complications.

In the end I think that boring old will power is the only way and any trick or tool or whatever that you can deploy to bolster that is how you give up.

My initial plan was to vape but I soon found that unsatisfying and it looked to me like trying to substitute one habit with another.

Once I started stopping, I didn't want to stop! It was extremely hard but I always reminded myself that I had got so far and that that time would be wasted if I had to start again. I followed doubled up time periods - one day, two days, 1/2 a week, a week, a fortnight, a month, two months ("cripes, this might work") and so on.

A mental tool I developed was a couple of mantras: "I don't want to smell" and "I don't want to die". Whenever I felt the cravings I repeated those to myself and I have no idea why but it did work for a while at a time. Gradually the need tailed off (say around two years)

I remember having quite vivid dreams where I would "crack" and start smoking again. I had to do quite a lot of mental verification to prove to myself that it was just a dream. At one point I even smelt my clothes to prove to myself it was all a dream.

We are all different and there is no right or wrong way to quit. One thing we can all agree on is it is hard, very hard but not impossible. Pick a strategy that might work for you and be prepared to change it but please do have a go. It really is worth it.

Hey, another person with addiction-intolerant ADHD! I have run into so few people who encountered and noted it. Most people can’t just treat a compulsion by curtailing it through willpower, though I still don’t comprehend why. Ironic that the willpower disorder wins the day versus the baseline.

ADHD people get hooked to smoking quite easily. Nicotine's a stimulant after all.

This has not been my experience. Obviously there's no way I can disprove a placebo effect, but I don't find myself to be particularly prone to placebo effects or magical thinking. The vast majority of the time,, I don't notice much effect if at all from the "amazing" psychoactives, nootropics, pharmaceuticals, supplements, etc., short of full blown psychedelics and stimulants. Perhaps I'm prone to the nocebo effect. Then again, if I nearly always have the nocebo effect, it would seem odd to me that suddenly I would have the placebo effect with patches. Is it like adderall? No, but I would be stunned if researchers performed a double-blind study of patches on me as the sole subject and couldn't find a measurable difference in my behavior in terms of task persistence.

its regulation. in jurisdictions where its not regulated you can often purchase a reusable, refillable vape for the same price as a disposable

Honestly, the mental aspect of addiction is what makes it difficult. Anyone can get through a couple of weeks feeling like shit, especially if you have support. But for years and years, you can be addicted to something that never even entered your body.

i know this sounds dumb on the surface, but assuming you have other restrictions in your life it works.

Vaping tastes great, can be done indoors, doesn’t need an ash tray, and others around you are mildly annoyed vs visibly upset. Cigarettes are the direct opposite of all of those. The added friction could put someone over the hump.

It's just because cigars (and presumably pipes?) are puffed, not inhaled. You absorb nicotine through the mucus membrane in your mouth (not as much), and otherwise enjoy the flavor. The practice with cigarettes is to inhale into your lungs. You could technically puff a cigarette I guess.

People make a big deal out additives and accelerants, but the carcinogens are 99% from smoke, burning plant matter. In that respect, pure tobacco isn't meaningfully safer. That said if you "puff", that's probably safer, though still risky (mouth cancer, and you're still going to inhale some amount of smoke).

A common assumption. A filter filters out harmful stuff right?

Except they don't:

https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/Cigarette-Filte...

There have been calls in the Netherlands (perhaps even at the EU level) to ban filtered cigarettes, for the simple reason that they are misleading and offer no protection, but are harmful to the environment because of the non-degradable micro-plastics.

So, journalism ethics have totally disappeared because someone complains on the internet? Grow up…

I literally saw a meme image saying this last year. Crazy to see it become reality.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't entirely uncommon in Norway (and probably also Sweden) to quit cigarettes by switching to snus (tobacco between your lip/gum).

Try pipe tobacco in a corncob (beginner level, easy/forgiving) or briar (more advanced, takes packing & coal management technique) pipe. Way less costly than cigarettes, in more ways than the wallet!

In early 2025, a Dutch newspaper was also writing about young adults struggling with vaping addiction, and how some switch to smoking as a better alternative.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/volkskrant-magazine/als-deze-moede... (https://archive.ph/O7dpL)

A perfect, ouroboros of addiction

I quit smoking by using Swedish snus until I got used to not smoking and then just tapered off the snus. This was after smoking 2 packs a day for 10+ years.

A significant factor in vapes not overtaking cigarettes is the tobacco lobby; they pay to play in legislature to ban vapes and associated paraphernalia in many US states, as well as create their own vape products to play both sides of the market. It's difficult to use vapes to quit smoking cigarettes when vape juice and single use vapes get banned, yet cigarettes remain legal.

I will second this, having enjoyed similar success. The idea is that you start taking it, smoke normally the first day or two, then stop (if I understand the mechanism correctly the drug uses the nicotine to guide it to the correct receptors at the outset and subsequently the molecules self-attach to each other). You take it 4 or 6 weeks - I think 4, but it was 16 years ago so I forget. Contrary to what some imagine, there's no long-term dose. Within the first few days your cravings evaporate, by the end of the course smelling someone else's cigarette evokes a mild feeling of nausea. It's the only approach that never resulted in a relapse of some kind for me.

There are side effects; it can cause stomach bleeding if you don't carefully take it with meals, so if your breakfast is just a cup of coffee you'll need to adjust to consuming food; and it's associated with intensely vivid dreams which can disrupt your sleep. I experienced both but did not find it that bad, I blame myself for playing a bit fast and loose with the mealtime warnings. idk what it costs now but I paid $400 for the full course out of pocket, probably like $750 today with inflation. So, less than 6 months of moderate cigarette use.

It doesn't fix the psychological desire for a 'smoke break'; for about 6 months I chewed gum (ordinary gum, not nicotine) to get past the mental habit of wanting to consume something. Some people reported using a fidget toy to give their hands something to do. My theory is that if you have a severe smoking addition it is probably because nicotine slotted neatly into some pre-existing somatic need, so once you get past the cravings stage it's worth exploring why smoking or vaping became such a big deal for you in the first place.

i remember a long time ago seeing the ads on TV with the turtle...the listed side effects were half the ad.

It gave my grandmother strokes. She never smoked again, and was still around, but never quite the same. She told me once, "I miss smoking every day. I loved it so much."

I had a family member who became suicidal on Chantix. I was wanting to quit at the same time so when given the option I went with Zyban (bupropion hydrochloride) and had quit by the second week.

What was really incredible though was right from the start I felt fantastic, like I spent all day in a flow state.

The doctor stopped the prescription after (I think) 8 weeks and I didn't start smoking again. Many years later I learned it is prescribed for ADHD and also as an antidepressant.

Not necessarily. I’m over 40 now and had a total of 3 cigarettes in my life, all of them in my twenties, parties, hanging out with people smoking etc. Every time it was a terrible experience and I was amazed why people do this to themselves…

Though it took my dad a bit longer, he managed to quit for good when I was a kid. Still died of lung disease at 80, but I have to think it would likely have been much sooner if he'd never quit. Anyway, watching him struggle with it when I was young definitely make me repulsed by cigarettes (and most other addictive substances) such that I've certainly never been tempted to try them.

I don't know the movie or show but there is a scene where someone asks a woman who quick smoking a long time ago (10 years maybe?) if she ever thinks about smoking and she says "every time someone lights up next to me at the bar I want to suck the smoke out of their lungs."

I smoked more than a pack a day for probably 7 or 8 years and quit a couple years after college, not quite cold turkey but basically just trying to wait a little longer between each cigarette. Eventually when the last half of the pack is stale and disgusting but you smoke them anyway because they're expensive, you just kind of stop one day. It was many, many years of no nicotine at all before I stopped thinking about it every day though.

Went cold turkey during the first covid lockdown. It was a combination of not being able to go out to buy cigarettes and also the fear of dying since I was a heavy chainsmoker.

Honestly, I didn't miss it once.

Sadly true, I think. My grandparents gave up smoking at the same time after grandad contracted emphysema. They were the generation that believed smoking was good for them and smoked for 50+ years. My grandma was shocked that she had physical withdrawal symptoms, something she associated with "druggies". But it went away after two weeks. After that my grandma never thought of smoking again and actually became repulsed by smoke. But my grandad never got over it, he craved a cigarette every day for the rest of his life.

What makes you think I'm not?

Impulse control?

I am very prone to (mostly digital) addictions, but on nicotine, despite having been smoking 7 years, I’ve quit cold turkey without trouble, and since then, I can absolutely just borrow one to a friend, maybe 2 or 3 times per year, without any withdrawal symptoms. It does not have any effect. I don’t understand anything about that :|

That's funny, as I was reading the comments on this page I was thinking the opposite: I don't understand people who get addicted to things.

Smoking seems gross and stupid and self-destructive to me.

Alcohol does nothing for me, I don't understand why people drink alcohol when it's clear they will get a hangover. Sometimes I drink wine or beer but there's nothing appealing about it.

Gambling (casinos, online, sports betting) seems stupid and pointless - it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll lose, it's the whole point of a casino.

Caffeine - I drink tea and coffee, but most of it without caffeine. Sometimes I drink caffeine every morning for a couple of weeks (mountain biking vacation), and then I stop it and feel bad for a day and then I'm back to normal.

I guess I'm just lucky.

I have never been addicted to nicotine so can't compare but it's quite easy to quit caffeine, I'll get headaches for a few days and then it's gone. But then what? Caffeine makes it easy to concentrate and work, enables me to get anything done at all. Other drugs that do that are illegal. Maybe one day, when I'm no longer working, I'll quit it for good. Not yet.

What have you done to replace the receptor-clearing capability nicotine has that likely “addicted” you in the first place?

(Feeling okay is addictive.)

thats how we all get started. its a social thing, your in or your out. sucks. but its what it is.

I vaped for around a year and each attempt to quit ended in failure.

The first attempt, quite early on, I hadn't realised how dependent I'd become and thought it would be easy. Sure, I enjoyed vaping, but I didn't "have" to do it. Give it a couple days and I'll be back to normal. Predictably that went poorly.

Various other attempts I'd now look back on as thinking I could outsmart addiction and try to ease out of it, when in reality it was little more than procrastination.

Oh, I'll start to limit the times I vape. Only between certain hours. Or I'll go outside and do it, make it inconvenient and less appealing. I'll buy flavours I don't enjoy as much and change the association.

For me the only way to stop was to accept the unpleasantness of going cold-turkey. I knew going in that the first 48-72 hours would be brutal but that it would get significantly easier afterwards. There's always a reason to delay but everything I attempted short of actually stopping feels like self-deception.

I combined a couple of methods:

- stop smoking in certain situations (no cigarette at the bus stop, no cigarette after lunch, …)

- allow myself to put out a cigarette halfway when I’m smoking. I lapsed and lit one, but that doesn’t mean I have to finish it.

- try to feel the downsides of the cigarette while smoking. The nicotine high mostly overrides this, but it’s possible to concentrate on the yucky feeling in your mouth, your lungs being burned etc.

- telling myself that I am sure I want to stop smoking at some point in my life so I might as well stop now.

Good job!! Would it have been less miserable if you did it more slowly? With antidepressants and other psychoactive meds the ride tends to be easier when it's drawn out longer.

Good for you, friend! You should feel proud.

Last time I managed to get addicted, the gum was a lifeline. I found it pretty easy to switch to, to be honest, and just told myself it was OK if I was on it forever. After about 4 months of as much gum as I wanted, whenever, I started working down through the dosages, eventually making little Franken-gums by using a pill-cutter and regular gum to split the dosage further.

I didn't find the process especially miserable.

Tabex (laburnum extract), something to boost dopamin for the first weeks and probably the actual will to do so. Quitting was actually easy that way.

Thank you. A similar regiment also works for digital technologies

It's an idea I've considered. Quitting cigarettes was much easier than quitting vaping has been. You can vape in your home, most places and at most times. You don't have any concept really of how much you're using. With cigarettes you have to take time, go outside, and you can literally count them making it easier to track your reduction.

I’m with you 100%. We’ll see if the last step goes ok next month after the MAOI is all cleared.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Butts

I have to confirm the article. After switching from cigarettes to vaping and vaping for several years, I decided to go back to cigarettes precisely to get rid of the monstrous vaping addiction.

While never a heavy smoker I absolutely loved vaping: it was the first thing my hand reached for in the morning and the last it let go falling asleep. I went into panics when I couldn't remember where I had left my vape.

I've now managed to further reduce my smoking to only very few cigarettes per day. This might well still be more harmful than vaping all day long, but at least I got rid of my sixth finger (as a friend used to call it) and I can forget about smoking or vaping for many hours a day.

Part of the problem is that vapes easily let you ingest a lot more nicotine than cigarettes. Researchers in the Netherlands found that some teens are vaping so much they effectively have the nicotine intake of a three pack a day tobacco addiction. This is due to a combination of (illegal) vapes being available in all sorts of fruity and hip child-friendly flavours, illegal vapes simply containing more nicotine, and vapes coming in reservoirs good for 9000 or so 'puffs'.

If you stuck with plain vapes bought through a legal channel, that risk factor would have been absent.

switched to vaping in 2011, and finally quit that last month. I started on 1.5 “step 1” patches and have tapered down to .5 over the last 6 weeks. Hardest thing I’ve ever done.

How cool is COPD and lung cancer? Vaping at least does not kill you

The pouches are how I got off vaping as well. The vaping is how I quit smoking, but I would never go back to either.

I actually prefer and enjoy the slower nicotine delivery of pouches. If the oral fixation is a problem for anyone, they can just leave the pouch in long after it's dead. They're easy to stop using because there's no chasing a "rush". I think it's a superior product design.

I also go long periods of time without pouches, but I will say 50mg a day is quite a lot. I average about four of the 6mg pouches in a day when I even use them at all.

I tapered off alcohol when the anxiety during hangovers and compulsive overeating started to get out of hand. It was a good run. I'll have the occasional seltzer during holidays or events. That genuinely is just one or two to get a slight buzz. I can't feel any euphoria from it anymore, just mild relaxation that eventually progresses back into stress when I go over my limit. A big help in confirming it wasn't "all in my head" was my smartwatch showing my elevated heart rate, low HRV, and bad sleep. I feel much stronger euphoric feelings from working out now than I ever did from drinking.

In the end, moderation is key as it's ever been. It's a lot easier when the top (or sometimes only) options are not just beer and cigarettes.

yeah it's annoying when people overstate the efficacy of patches. if patches worked as well as cigs, everyone would just buy patches instead (huge market here..don't steal my idea).

It's a very psychological addiction. Obviously willpower and compulsiveness vary depending on the person, but whether you believe it is easy to quit or hard to quit, you are right.

The misery of quitting comes from wanting something you cannot have. The trick to avoiding that misery is to truly not want it. Then the only remaining struggle is a few days of noticeable physical symptoms (like having a mild flu, at worst) and the long struggle of trying to not forget why you don't want to smoke or vape or snus.

Anyone wishing to quit should read Alan Carr's book. Don't worry about whether everything in the book is literally true; the point of the book is not to be a list of pedantically true statements; the point of the book is to get you to quit smoking.

for me, its black n milds.

Cytisine ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytisine ) doesn't get much attention.

It's extremely effective at reducing nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

Moreover, European pharmacy formulations are available "OTC" from Amazon in the USA because its not a recognized drug there

I stopped smoking when my girlfriend got cancer and I switched to vaping. That worked for a year and a half, then my vape fell into mud and I bought a pack of smokes because I had no quick solution and started smoking again.

I'm working on going back to the vape.

I had a lot of trouble quitting. Menthol hemp cigarettes did the trick, smoked nice but no nicotine

You could always cut out the middle man and have cancer surgically implanted in your lungs.

I was always taught it's the nicotine in cigarettes that makes them addictive. But it's actually the action of inhaling from a little stick and exhaling visible smoke/vapour that is most addictive. It's quite curious why that is. I have never used nicotine regularly but I did feel this craving after using a nicotine-free vape for a while.

So if you have to do it, you might as well do the least harmful one, which is not cigarettes. You should also be able to kick the nicotine very easily. It will take a couple of weeks but it's not that hard. Kicking the inhaling and exhaling part is the hard bit.

Asocial junkies either way, poisoning the air whereever they go.

I used supplements with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to quit smoking a few years ago and it was a surprisingly smooth experience.

Decided to go cold turkey and started taking them a few weeks in advance - and even before the planned date I suddenly started losing the urge to smoke.

AFAIK recent research indicates it helps with addiction to multiple other substances including alcohol.

It is simple. Ban them. Otherwise it is genocide.

Where do you all live that smoking or vaping are still a thing?!