One of the main reasons cited by vaping opponents for their opposition to vaping is that addiction to nicotine in itself is bad, and therefore it is in the interest of the public to minimize it to the best of our abilities. I have written at length about the scarcity of evidence proving that the use of nicotine is at all a net negative, and therefore that nicotine addiction should be bad, but that isn’t all that’s wrong with that reasoning. See, not only is it totally unclear that nicotine does more bad than good in the first place, but it is also totally unclear whether nicotine ingested by methods other than smoking is even that addictive to begin with.

The public health world has long acknowledged cigarettes to be one of the most addictive drugs available, on par with other famously addictive drugs such as heroin, but there have long been doubts about what exactly in cigarettes is causing this addiction. In more than one case, researchers studying the effects of nicotine on lab rats have found that the rats rarely exhibited symptoms of nicotine addiction when dosed with pure nicotine, whereas they were just as susceptible to becoming addicted to cigarettes as humans are. What could explain this discrepancy?

We have known for a while that cigarette companies “enrich” their products with various additives meant to increase nicotine delivery to the smoker’s lungs, but another effect of these additives is to increase the cigarettes’ potential for addiction. Basically, cigarettes are to nicotine as crack dipped in PCP is to cocaine. Except cocaine is probably more addictive than pure nicotine, but I’m sure you catch my drift.

It turns out that the rats that had such an easy time resisting nicotine addiction became addicted much more rapidly when their nicotine was spiked with acetaldehyde, a compound found in tobacco. Indicators of addiction became even stronger when the rats were given anabasine, nornicotine, anatabine, cotinine, and myosmine, all compounds added to commercial cigarettes. This should make it quite obvious not only how depraved the tobacco industry is, but also that nicotine by itself is hardly a substance to control.

In reality, nicotine is basically the same as any number of over the counter supplements you might find at your local Rite Aid. Pair that with the fact that there’s good evidence showing that it might provide numerous benefits to those who consume it, and it becomes hard to imagine why vaping is routinely talked of as a massive epidemic we need to stop in its tracks. I find it difficult to believe that humans consumed this stuff for ages without there being anything good about it. It’s a shame that the tobacco industry has turned smoking into a slow suicide for the heavy smoker; at the same time, I feel relatively fortunate to be living in a world where scientific innovation has made it such that I can ingest nicotine without having to deal with tobacco.

Happy vaping!