"Nicotine is one of the most addicting agent (sic). The US surgeon general (2010) has concluded nicotine to be as addictive as cocaine or heroin." Is this real

"Nicotine is one of the most addicting agent (sic). The US surgeon general (2010) has concluded nicotine to be as addictive as cocaine or heroin." Is this really true? The last time I looked carefully into this claim, I found that pretty much everyone conflates nicotine and tobacco, and that the precious few studies on nicotine showed minimal addictiveness. E.g.: "However, substantial evidence exists to suggest that nicotine's reinforcing effects alone are not sufficient to account for the intense addictive properties of tobacco smoking ..."[1] If anyone has further references, that would be great. There are also known health benefits of nicotine [2][3]. Probably, just like for every other drug, we need to better understand the risk vs reward tradeoffs. [1] https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/25/4/444 https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/25/4/444 [2] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xw7agz/four-surprising-potential-health-benefits-of-nicotine https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xw7agz/four-surprising-po... [3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-a-nicotine-patch-make-you-smarter-excerpt/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-a-nicotine-p...