I think it can be linked more to tobacco being a carcinogen. While smoking 'anything' may cause other issues with your respiratory system (bronchitis, emphysema, COPD, etc), smoking a carcinogen means you are exposing cells to a substance that can alter their genome.

An easier comparison would be chewing gum and nicotine gum. Since nicotine is a carcinogen, you run the risk of developing cancers of the mouth, throat, and gums by chewing the gum. Regular chewing gum does not contain a carcinogen, so it wouldn't affect you in that way.

As far as the smoke itself, I know that cigarette smoke has additional carcinogens other than nicotine. I do not know if these transfer to weed simply because it is smoked as well. One would assume you could bypass this, just in case, by vaping or using edibles.

It all goes to how comfortable you are with the government legislating what you can and can't do. I used to smoke, nasty habit. I did it for at least 20 years, started when I was 14. I was a light smoker, usually less than 4 or so a day, but I did do it until I weaned myself off with nicotine gum and then quit that later.

Now, I wouldn't want to stay in a hotel or go to an establishment (bar, eatery, etc) 'alone' that allowed it in all areas. But in selected areas that I don't have to enter, I don't have a problem with it. I feel that way because I want people to be able to do what they want to their own body.

As far as employees being forced to be exposed to it, no one can force you to do anything in a job unless you are essentially a slave. You always have the option to look for work elsewhere. Bars could offer a pay differential or force patrons to pay an automatic tip percentage if they want service in a smoking area, giving incentive for people who don't care about serving smokers. Their body, their choice.

I thought they were merchandising the lines of nicotine gum and stuff they carry as a pharmacy.

I quit smoking 13 years ago when an antidepressant prescribed to me (Wellbutrin - generic name: bupropion) had the side-effect of reducing the craving for nicotine. (Doctors at the time didn't know about this, but when they figured it out the makers of Wellbutrin came out with Zyban, which is the EXACT same drug, just with a new name, and marketed as a smoking-cessation product.) Anyway I guess I got lucky, because several other attempts before that all failed.

All I can suggest to you is to give this e-cigarette a try if it really interests you. Do whatever it takes to quit. The more times you try to quit, the better your chances are of success. It only makes sense, because if you don't try you'll never quit. A little more advice:

- If you're going to try prescription drugs to quit smoking, Chantix is supposed to work better than Wellbutrin, but they both have side effects, so be informed.
- If you try nicotine patches and they don't work, try nicotine gum. And if you try nicotine gum first and it doesn't work, try the patch. Some people find more relief from gum, while others find the patch more effective.
- Get used to the idea that you will gain weight by quitting, because VERY few people don't gain weight when they quit. Just remember that you're still healthier carrying an extra 10 or 20 pounds than you are when you're smoking.

Small things can also help you quit:

- Put your cigarettes and lighters in the most inconvenient location in your home. Every time you want a cigarette you'll have to go all the way to that location to grab the smoke and the light. And leave them there, thus ensuring every time you want to have another smoke you'll have to go out of your way to get to them.
- Get rid of your ashtrays. Force yourself to go outside to smoke, thus making it more inconvenient. Your home will eventually stop stinking of smoke too.
- Stop hanging around rottenseed. He's a dirty smoker too.

re: channel assignment - this belongs more in philosophy than mind&brain

re: nicotine addiction -

I agree with him about using the patch or gum - trying to kick an addiction to a substance by ingesting that substance is absurd. Ever hear of someone weaning themselves off of smoking heroin by shooting it? (Methadone is a completely different substance - not the same as using nicotine gum.)

On the other hand, the bit about withdrawal symptoms not getting worse is just a load of horse shit. This ties in with alizarin's paraphrase from the book about being able to sleep for 8 hours without smoking. Well, I've known people who can't. They wake up in the middle of the night because of withdrawal and have a cigarette. Also, that 8 eight hours of not smoking is the reason why long time heavy smokers light a cigarette before even going to the bathroom or putting their slippers on - because the withdrawal symptoms are stronger after 8 hours than after 1.

Don't know if he addresses this in the book, but physical addiction is also tangled with behavior. Certain activities that a smoker associates with smoking usually spark the desire to smoke, even if it wasn't there immediately before. The point being that part of being addicted to cigarettes is psychological, and for many, that is the harder part to deal with.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Animated-PSA-When-you-are-stressed-nicotine-gum#comment-471463

In reply to this comment by schmawy:
Forget it, more important buisness...

Vote for this if you like it, and watch Pushkill change color:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Animated-PSA-When-you-are-stressed-nicotine-gum

Forget it, more important buisness...

Vote for this if you like it, and watch Pushkill change color:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Animated-PSA-When-you-are-stressed-nicotine-gum

"A prune-size bit of tissue tucked under the frontal lobes, it controls gut feelings and habits; it's what drives a recovering smoker to yearn for the feel and taste of cigarettes. The "reward circuitry," a network of neurons at the core of the brain, also plays a role. Nicotine boosts the brain's levels of dopamine, the "feel good" neurotransmitter. Another, as yet unknown, chemical in tobacco smoke acts like an antidepressant, blocking an enzyme that breaks down dopamine. So smokers get a double dose of the stuff—and about half end up addicted, essentially, to their own brain chemicals.

Remove the nicotine, though, and the body can't maintain the high dopamine levels on its own. In the brain of a smoker who's trying to quit, receptors start "screaming," says Dr. Norman Edelman of the American Lung Association, "crying out to be satisfied." Smokers often say a cigarette calms them, but by the time they're addicted, the nicotine rush simply halts the first symptoms of withdrawal. "The addiction is why you're nervous in the first place," says Edelman. Longtime smokers also have to end a behavior that's "entrenched in their daily lives," says Corinne Husten, head of the CDC's Office of Smoking and Health. Add in the stresses of, say, running for president, and it's all too easy to slip.

It may seem drastic to call a smoker an "addict" but, says Chris Cartter, who runs QuitNet, the world's largest quit-smoking program, "a lot of doctors view this as on par with overcoming a heroin addiction." The withdrawal isn't as ugly, but it's not pretty, either: shortly after quitting, the typical longtime smoker becomes cranky, has trouble sleeping and making decisions, and gains weight. Usually, the first weeks are the worst, but for some people the symptoms can drag on for a year or more.

That's assuming, however, that the smoker is taking the cold-turkey approach, which there's little reason to do these days. Nicotine gum, approved in 1984, is the oldest anti-smoking aid. (Obama chews it throughout the day.) It's about as effective as the newer patches, inhalers and nasal sprays, all of which placate those screaming receptors without being addictive themselves. Other options include Zyban, which is also marketed as an antidepressant, and Chantix, introduced last year, which eases withdrawal and blocks nicotine's effects."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17193908/site/newsweek/