Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 11:41:50 -0400
From: “John R Dykers”
Subject: Congratulations Plus Nicotine addiction
Thursdays Chatlisters should be proud of the tone of all the posts. Learning from each other and no ad hominum nasties! And difficult, multifacted problems too.
“The hardest facet of learning is having to modify what we formerly thought was true.” JRD
I watched the Vapor Girl Shop video Gene produced so well. Using e-cigarettes as a ‘taper’ to stop smoking tobacco is very laudable. We must recognize the ‘trade-off’ of flavoring nicotine and selling legally the most addictive of drugs. “Most addictive” is a partially erroneous generalization as heroin, meth, cocaine, alcohol, et al may be more addictive for certain individuals. The generalization is based on a very well done study in JAMA maybe 15 years ago, + -, that showed that among inpatients in a rehab facility for multiple substance abuse, over 50% said it was harder to quit smoking tobacco cigarettes than to give up their primary drug of addiction.
At least addiction to ‘pure’ nicotine, as harmful as it is, does not carry ALL the health damage of smoking tobacco, we assume. It will take several decades to document precisely the damage, although we do know nicotine effects on the brain and blood vessels, heart and blood pressure. – remember it took generations to learn what smoking tobacco does!
John Dykers