are you implying that anyone who has been solely vaping e-liquid w/nicotine should be able to quit cold turkey tomorrow and not have any withdrawal symptoms?
Theoretically, if they've been vaping long enough. But I was specifically addressing never-smokers. There are a few things to think about with so-called "nicotine addiction."
1) If all that smokers and tobacco users really were "addicted" to was nicotine, then why do nicotine products fail for 94% of smokers who use it to replace smoking? Obviously, it's not the lack of nicotine making them go back to smoking/chewing.
2) If all smokers wanted was the nicotine PLUS the "habit" of smoking (ie. the action of smoking at certain times) then why do so many vapers find "something missing" with e-cigarettes? They get the nicotine (sometimes over 4.5%!) and the feeling of smoking, but it still doesn't help them quit altogether. Many (if not most) of these folks find using a smokeless tobacco (like snus,) that has all of the MAOIs and other tobacco chemicals in it, helps them finally replace smoking fully.
Not to mention the folks who switch and nearly instantly reduce to 0 mg or start with 0 mg. They obviously didn't need the nicotine so much, right? So, based on this evidence, there is a strong indication that a good portion of smokers are either dependent upon something more than just the nicotine and hand/mouth that is making it harder to quit or it was just an oral fixation in the first place. Most smokers will fall into being a combination of the two.
3) The term "addiction" for smoking/nicotine is still debated in science circles. The worst withdrawal symptoms most people have from smoking are extremely minor compared to street and prescription drugs. The physical symptoms are actually very similar to caffeine withdrawal. It's that urge to still want to smoke that is compared to other drugs - because smokers would still smoke even with the high risks, whereas caffeine users find it a lot easier to refrain if they develop an ulcer or something. Of course, caffeine drinkers are rarely even told to quit (so not too many opportunities to study what would happen if you told 4.3 million caffeine users to quit, even though they aren't having any negative health effects at the time) and they don't usually have a "drinking habit" the same way smokers have a smoking habit. (Meaning, most caffeine drinkers don't have 20 times a day they drink coffee nor reach for a cup when feeling stressed or bored. THAT is habit.)
So, there are a lot of reasons for the argument that smoking is NOT an addiction to nicotine. More likely, it's a dependence upon nicotine and other chemicals, like caffeine dependence, with the added habit that makes it much harder to quit than caffeine. Not to mention that, in spite of what the ANTZ claim, people DO enjoy the feeling and taste of smoking. It's an acquired taste like premium alcohol, black espresso or pungent/raw foods, but it is enjoyable for many of those who do it, nonetheless. Put those all together and what you have is a mild chemical dependence that is amplified enough by enjoyment and habit to make it APPEAR to be an addiction.
So, non-tobacco users who start using ncotine e-cigarettes may not ever even become addicted, because it's not even really a nicotine addiction. And, of course, those studies of ulcerative colitis patients not becoming addicted to nicotine alone support this.
On the other hand, the ANTZ claim that non-smokers can become addicted to extracted nicotine has little evidence supporting it. There have been a few surveys that uncovered the very rare (by their own conclusion) occurrence of never-smokers claiming dependence on nicotine gum. Something like 4 respondents out of around 1,500 were never-tobacco users. (Again, remember that chewing gum can be habit-forming.) But it is very rare to find never-users of tobacco using pharmaceutical nicotine of any kind (another argument against the ANTZ fear mongering that droves of people will start vaping because they think it's safer - has that happened with NRT gum and lozenges to any significant degree??)
I believe we need to rethink all of the things we've been taught by the ANTZ about nicotine "addiction."
Sorry - that ended up being really long!
(This post is my personal opinion and not intended to represent CASAA policy nor represent the opinions of other CASAA directors.)
