Nicotine is still extremely addictive by itself. So much so that if it weren’t “best known” you’d have to buy it in the same places you buy peptides with cryptocurrency. No other nootropic generates the level of irrational desire to consume it.
If you read stuff like this comment and just dive right in, best case scenario is that you end up at 105% of baseline and higher blood pressure, as long as you’re constantly using nicotine, but 70% of baseline when you don’t use it, and weeks of brain fog when you try to quit.
Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum (not commercial nicotine patches), and to set strict windows and use cases.
> Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum
I'd assume when GP wrote "nicotine", they meant nicotine and not tobacco. So gums, not cigarettes. Based on Gwern's rather extensive summary, I believe nicotine alone is not dangerously addictive.
No, I mean nicotine. Almost all the sources in Gwern’s summary come from before the commercialization of vapes and other nicotine products. All of these use nicotine salt which is absorbed much faster than freebase nicotine from old-style vape juice or nicotine polacrilex from gum, making it more familiar for former smokers but also more addictive.
If you’re convinced it’s impossible, it’s really easy to test it out by just buying a Juul. I don’t recommend it.
If you read stuff like this comment and just dive right in, best case scenario is that you end up at 105% of baseline and higher blood pressure, as long as you’re constantly using nicotine, but 70% of baseline when you don’t use it, and weeks of brain fog when you try to quit.
Harm reduction is to use only patches or nicotine replacement gum (not commercial nicotine patches), and to set strict windows and use cases.