I think I'd rather go see an acupuncturist with a sadistic tilt. If I'm going masochist, I'm going all in.
My mother is an acupuncturist and I was her voodoo doll for practice during acupuncture school. She rehearsed every point multiple times. I should be the healthiest acupuncture patient ever, and she earnestly tried to use the quit smoking protocol many times.
Acupuncture works for pain, is all that's proven. The needles don't hurt. I had sciatica while I was pregnant and my mom fixed it with a 3.5 inch needle that she shoved down my rear into my sciatic nerve-- I felt it when the needle hit the nerve, but it wasn't painful, just disconcerting, and it worked.
I think even the most sadistic acupuncturist won't be able to hurt you or harm you though. The needles are the size of a hair follicle, they aren't painful at all. And if you want to die via acupuncture, you're going to have to do something really nuts like not tell your acupuncturist you had ribs removed for a smaller waist and then get your heart punctured by accident, that's the only acupuncturist death I know of.
My experience has been it's no magic bullet for smoking/detox, though....
Anna