Even the addiction is, in a strange sense, pleasurable. A nicotine craving is a purely objectified need that can be satisfied in a very direct and immediate way; that is a powerful experience if you have other important needs that cannot be satisfied. I might be miserable at work, I might be depressed and anxious in ways that do not respond to drugs or psychotherapy, I might be poor and lonely and justifiably hopeless about the future, but this one specific need of mine can always be satisfied with a pack of smokes or a Juul and a five minute break.
When you have very limited control over your circumstances, cigarettes give you some modicum of control over your mood. If you have never felt completely trapped by your circumstances, it is difficult to express how significantly that sliver of control can affect your sense of self.
The sociability of smoking simply cannot be emulated in any other way, because the act of smoking itself provides a profound sense of communality. Non-smokers do not and cannot understand why the smokers choose to huddle outside, which is precisely why we feel able to start conversations with complete strangers. We are bound together by a bewitching, maddening and frequently lifelong relationship with a very peculiar alkaloid.
I believe that nicotine has, for entirely respectable reasons, been demonized by the anti-smoking lobby; it has been characterised as a completely pointless drug that persists only because of the aggressive marketing of tobacco companies and its highly addictive nature.
I would argue that the potent addictive potential of nicotine is a product of its potent psychoactive effect and the complex role it plays in the life of smokers. E-cigarette users see e-cigarettes as a potentially lifesaving technology that satisfies a profound psychological need. I do not wish to endorse e-cigarettes, I certainly would not encourage anyone to take up nicotine use, but I would beg for some modicum of empathy on the part of non-smokers towards their nicotine-dependent peers.
He doesn't have a lot of control over his circumstances, and I can definitely understand the sense of control you can get from satisfying a nicotine craving. He's also mentioned the social aspect quite a few times. He frequently tells me that the best times in his life have all been smoking cigarettes.
My issue is that he is undoubtedly going to suffer major health problems, likely dying much earlier than he would have head it not been for the two pack a day habit. He knows this, and routinely jokes about dying before he hits thirty. I don't know if he really understands how young thirty is.
I do have empathy for him, but I love him very much and hate to see the damage he is doing to himself...
I am moving to a first-floor apartment purely because I've lived in two apartments where the downstairs neighbour likes to smoke. I can't keep a window open because their fucking shit-smell leaks into my living space, it's extremely infuriating.
The "huddling outside" thing is also quite annoying. Often smokers "huddle" right next to the entrypoint of a building. Now anyone who is entering/exiting has to go through a cloud of smoke. I've also noticed that even when building managers put "No smoking" signs around these areas, smokers do not care.
Honestly, I started this comment in a friendly tone, but deleted most of it just to hate on smokers after I realized that I actually hate them.
"Nicotine as a cognitive enhancer." (1992): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1579636
"Nicotine treatment of mild cognitive impairment" (2012): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3466669/
"Cognitive Effects of Nicotine: Recent Progress." (2018): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29110618
A study measuring higher effective IQ (1994): https://www.gwern.net/docs/nicotine/1994-stough.pdf
> We therefore hypothesised that nicotine is acting to improve intellectual performance on the elementary information processing correlates of IQ. [W]e tested this hypothesis using the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) test. APM scores were significantly higher in the smoking session compared to the non-smoking session, suggesting that nicotine acts to enhance physiological processes underlying performance on intellectual tasks.
"Will a Nicotine Patch Make You Smarter?": https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-a-nicotine-p...
These may be reasons why people choose to use it. I've certainly spoken to people who believe they're more productive or effective on nicotine.
I don't know what the current research is on whether these benefits are short-term only or can be sustained long-term. I'm not an expert on this - I'm just casually interested in nootroptics. I don't consume nicotine or tobacco.
There is also debate about how addictive nicotine is by itself. While tobacco is extremely addictive, there is evidence that nicotine, alone, is habit-forming but only mildly addictive or perhaps even nonaddictive (but still habit-forming). Psychopharmacologist Paul Newhouse makes this point in the Scientific American article above.
An essay by Gwern Branwen presenting an overview of data on nicotine addiction: https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine
> My take away is that there is addiction but it’s drastically overestimated by almost everyone and may been conflated with the habit-formation capability
An in-depth review and critique of the evidence of nicotine addiction: "A critique of nicotine addiction" (2000): https://www.gwern.net/docs/nicotine/2002-frenkdar.pdf
> We submit that an objective evaluation of these data leads to the conclusion that [nicotine] is not an addictive drug and that the popularized equation of the addictive properties of nicotine [...] has little to do with science.