My final suggestion is to find nicotine you don't need to inhale. Puff a cigar. Puff a pipe. Plant a snus in your cheek. Do anything to avoid sucking smoke or vapor into your lungs -- with their known and unknown consequences.
I have to completely DISagree.
Pipe and Cigar (and snuff/snus?) smoking causes a significant increase in throat and mouth cancer. You're still putting thousands of chemicals in your mouth/tissues that contain known carcinogens and it's a bad idea.
I don't know that I agree with your assesment that "putting something in your lungs" is exactly bad, either. Studies have shown that PG is completely safe, and nicotine is not a carcinogen (won't give you cancer). If you're looking for Nicotine, it seems the safest, most efficient means is vaping.
Now, if you want to ensure you don't ever become addicted to Nicotine, then don't smoke anything, and stay away from _all_ tobacco products. If you enjoy the bump you get from Nicotine, safe ways make more sense than tobacco ways, and cheaper is better in most cases.. and with the case of vaping, can be much more enjoyable than gums, and patches would be just silly (meant to be worn for 8 hours at a time).