How addictive is nicotine? That is an open question. Probably less than previously believed, and not supportive of vaping as a "gateway", but decades of research with solid biochemical and genetic testing demonstrating the actual changes that happen within a brain in response to nicotine cannot be ignored. I have no problem stating the likelihood of developing nicotine dependence from vaping is extremely small in a non-smoker, and certainly stating there are wide differences between individuals in their propensity to developing nicotine dependence even in tobacco (not everyone who has one or even several cigarette is automatically addicted to tobacco for life). But making a flat out statement that nicotine is not addictive makes vapers appear as untrustworthy as ANTZ or BT.
Yeah, I don't know enough about the subject to have a strong opinion on the subject (though I am inclined to suspect that vaping nicotine is at the very least _less_ addictive than smoking cigarettes. That seems to be true of other forms of smoking tobacco as well- cigars and pipes certainly seem to be addictive, but they don't seem to be so to the degree cigarettes are.)
But I think your point about NRTs is a good one. I've quit smoking cold-turkey a couple of times, once for six months, a couple of other times for more than a month. Some people find that not too difficult. I am not one of those people. I was just a basket case for the first month, and it took months before I felt right. I tried the patch not long before I started vaping, and tbh it didn't really seem to help, not even as much as you'd expect a placebo to (though for a variety of reasons I think I might be less susceptible to the placebo effect than some.)
OTOH, while I experienced some cravings when I started vaping (on much less effective equipment than is available today, though on pretty high nic juice) they were mild. I was actually very surprised- I had hoped that vaping would help, but had still expected to go through some hell, and most likely fail. So it seems pretty clear to me that vaping and the patch are quite different. That's anecdote (though it's anecdote that's common enough that it starts to look like data, if you squint at it in just the right light,) and I'm not suggesting that strong conclusions can be drawn from it. But I'm unconvinced by studies involving the patch or gum.
I think you make another good point when you point out that, since vaping doesn't seem to be very hazardous, dependence on _vaping itself_ should not be viewed in the same light as addiction to smoking, as long as it doesn't lead to smoking. I know some people who start vaping hoping to give it up in turn, and that's a fine goal. Frankly, I like nicotine- I think it something of a wonder drug. It's just a wonder drug that has traditionally had a very problematic delivery mechanism
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A business partner and I were talking a few years ago and he expressed a bit of jealousy at my vaping, because we were both working a lot, and he understood the way it picked me up and helped me concentrate, without the negative side-effects of- well I won't get into what a lot of people in my industry often do, as I think detailed discussion of that sort of thing is frowned on here. But even caffeine, while I definitely like some coffee in the morning, tends to make you pretty strung out if you overuse it. He was right, I think, to be jealous
, though he didn't start vaping, entirely because of concerns over dependence.
It seems to me that the best way to limit the chances of vaping being a gateway to smoking is to make it easier to vape than to smoke. The people who are most pushing the idea of vaping as gateway seem generally to be the same people arguing for regulations that make it most likely to be one. This makes very little sense to me, but tbh there is quite a lot about politics and regulation that makes very little sense to me. I am either not very good at discerning the sense in much of it, or much of it makes very little sense.
