What you're missing is that nicotine is harmless on its own; in fact, it's commonly used as a "nootropic" (cognitive enhancer) [0]. The true danger of smoking

What you're missing is that nicotine is harmless on its own; in fact, it's commonly used as a "nootropic" (cognitive enhancer) [0]. The true danger of smoking cigarettes is not the nicotine - that's simply the vessel by one gets addicted. The true danger is the tar and other carcinogenic by-products of inhaling a combusted tobacco plant. Anecdotally, I started smoking cigarettes as a university undergraduate. I used Juuls (and other e-cigarettes, both disposable and refillable) to help me quit, and I'm now nicotine and tobacco free. When I smoked cigarettes, I would wake up every morning hacking my lungs out. I smelled awful. I couldn't engage in cardiovascular exercise for longer than a minute. With e-cigarettes, my coughing went away and my lung capacity returned to approximately normal. In fact, I competed in two Spartan Beast races while addicted to e-cigs. Juul is an awful company for marketing towards children, but it's no exaggeration to say that e-cigarettes saved my life. [0]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1579636 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1579636