Is anyone who takes up smoking today a friggin' idiot?

[Channing_Idaho_Banks]

@Wesley_Clark

There are some benefits to smoking.

Nicotine reduces stress and makes it easier to cope with anger and anxiety, and helps suppress appetite.

Also for mentally ill people, nicotine helps rebalance their brain chemistry a bit. Hence smoking rates among the mentally ill are higher.

Granted, all these benefits can be had from safer methods of nicotine administration. Nasal sprays, patches, gum, vape pens, etc.

Having said that, I’ve never smoked more than a handful of times, but I tried smoking nicotine free flavored vape pens. I just like the flavor, but apparently even those can cause lung problems. So I quit doing that.

there really are no benefits to smoking other than the quick drug-delivery system. Nicotine, however, has a lot of valuable effects. They just need to work on the delivery system.

[Xema]

@Wesley_Clark

Nicotine reduces stress …

Well, regular smokers certainly report that. But what it really reduces is the stress associated with a shortage of nicotine for those habituated to regular doses of nicotine.

Its effect on non-smokers is complex, and definitely not accurately characterized as stress-reducing.