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I remember an interesting summary posted on HN back in 2013 about nicotine and tobacco. This was before vaping became popular, but the case he made was that nic

by jdnier 8y ago

I remember an interesting summary posted on HN back in 2013 about nicotine and tobacco. This was before vaping became popular, but the case he made was that nicotine is actually not very addictive on it own, but seems to reinforce addiction in the presence of other compounds found in tobacco (e.g., MAOIs). Lots of primary sources given. So what else is in vaping liquid? "Nicotine as a useful stimulant" (gwern.net) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6457772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6457772

boomboomsubban 8y ago
Most of what I've seen calls nicotine one of the most addictive drugs, but even if it's not that addictive it could still be causing these problems. Addictiveness describes how likely you are to develop a dependency after using some amount of times, and presumably these people are vaping many times before addicted.
nicotine_temp 8y ago
Positive comments about nicotine in the LessWrong community were a major reason why I started vaping. I found the addiction to be less serious than commonly claimed, but I also found the beneficial effects to be small. I couldn't say with confidence that it's better than caffeine, and caffeine is more socially acceptable. I don't suppose I'd be shadowbanned for telling people my experience of caffeine.