If your goal was to reduce the risk of cancer, but you wanted to enjoy nicotine, that would probably be a reasonable thing to do. I can only speak for myself,

If your goal was to reduce the risk of cancer, but you wanted to enjoy nicotine, that would probably be a reasonable thing to do. I can only speak for myself, but I find smoking is much more enjoyable than chewing nicotine gum. There are probably lovely tasting brands of nicotine gum but I've tried about three or four and they have all shared a strange characteristic... it's like a feeling that they are chemically burning the inside of your mouth slightly, and for me the feeling intensifies the longer I chew the gum for. Of course when smoking there's lots of nasty effects too, but I'm just saying given the choice I'd take smoking. Source: non smoker who has tried to give up lots of times