The Glade 4.0

Corrected, because moderate use of alcohol is healthy, both physically and emotionally, and carries no hardship for those arond you.



See, there's a difference here. Most of the "good things in life" you're thinking of actually have no health negatives at all in moderation, and actually fulfill at least some health positive. Even the fattiest of foods provides some needed nutrients, and if eaten sparingly, no potential health issues. A single cigarrette per day has no health benefits, and still significantly increases your odds of cancer and cardiovascular problems (albeit far less drasticly than pack-a-day smokers.)

In my experience, smoking apears to be so addictive that people like you are a rarity. Once that addiction kicks in, the "pack a day" seems to be the norm.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

False. Nicotine is known to have therapeutic effects. The real question is whether the side effects and negatives counterbalance any benefit.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

I distinctly remember an MPR program on smoking. They were interviewing a smoker who had also been a drug addict. He was a heroin user and had been for a long time. One day he had his "sober moment" where he looked in the mirror and saw what heroin was doing to his life and he quit cold turkey. I'll say that again, he quit what is considered to be one of the most addicting drugs cold turkey and never looked back. Then he commented that he still couldn't quit smoking.

Smoking is generally considered to be equally addictive to heroin or cocaine, and amongst rehab circles for the two harder drugs, to be considered an acceptable addiction.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Building off of Talya, smoking is one of the few susbtances that, when used correctly, is still dangerous.

Alcohol, when taken correctly, is beneficial. It's only a problem when it's overused. Heck, even most of the illegal drugs are OK when used properly, and have positive effects and/or uses.

I've never seen anything similar for cigarettes. As such, I would be really interested to see therapeutic benefits of nicotine that require it to be inahled, especially since it's not usually the nicotine in smoked products that's the worst part of it. So if you wouldn't mind forwarding me those papers, I'd appreciate it.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I don't have any hard data, but everyone I know that tried to quit smoking and later fell off the wagon did so in a time of stress, and they all cited the same reason. Smoking calmed their nerves.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Distribution method is irrelevant. Talking about benefit/risk in terms of "smoking" is a confounder, particularly if you're comparing "smoking" to other drugs. What you're really talking about is nicotine, and the delivery method is smoking.

But you can also smoke cocaine or heroin, just like you could inject nicotine. Changes in delivery method of a given drug simply alter the benefit/risk equation.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

While I agree, anecdotally (second-hand), it's worth asking whether that nerve-calming effect is a quality of nicotine use, or a response to satisfying the addiction itself.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Well physical addiction symptoms would be nearly gone after a few weeks, wouldn't they? If someone had been off the smokes for a year and then got back on the wagon because it calmed them, I'd attribute that to the nicotine.

Mental addictions last for much longer than the physical. I suspect it's a little of both.

As with all drugs, a small dose of nicotine has therapeutic effects and may be considered beneficial for those taking it…

It acts almost like caffeine, in that it is a stimulant, suppresses appetite and increases metabolism. It also acts as a neuro-receptor control, so in times of extreme stress, it also acts as a relaxant.

I would also like to note that since it is the “evil drug to target” at the moment, there is an obvious lack of research fund going into the benefit of nicotine. A quick search on pubmed turned up only a few, with the majority talking about the cessation of smoking.

neuronal nicotinic receptors as a drug target in schizophrenia.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23231385

Another article I found to be interesting was on a test conducted using the placebo effect to test the actual effects of cigarettes. And I quote “Smoking a nicotine cigarette produced better performance on the Rapid Visual Information Processing Task, a test of sustained attention; but the expectancy manipulation had no effect.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22708609

Nicotine is not the "evil drug to target" at the moment; people don't actually have a problem with the nicotine part. It's, you know, all the carcinogens that bug people. No one gives a crap about the "e-cigarettes" that give you a shot of nicotine without smelling disgusting.

Alcohol, fatty foods also carry carcinogens at large amounts, I understand that it's probably the smoke/smell part that bugs people. However many obese people have increase BO and drunks don't smell particularly well either, but that's usually not considered polite conversation. Since there isn't a call to regulate personal hygiene, I don't see why smokers are thought to be fair game...

While I would support a banning of cigarette smoke in public areas, to actually move it under a controlled substance is over regulation.

The point is that it is specifically the low temperature burning (smouldering) associated with cigarettes that creates carcinogens from substances that are not natively harmful.

Inhaled smoke of all varieties is dangerous, whether you're smoking rolled up paper or something else.

Hence separating the benefits of nicotine from the act of smoking it.

It's also the reason why second hand smoke is such a big issue- it's more strongly carcinogenic than primary smoke (no filters), and there are a growing number of people with mild to severe allergies towards it.

As of yet, I'm unaware of any such adverse effects of smelling the BO from obese people, and while there are definitely secondary effects of alcohol abuse, many of them are already illegal and are present with or without the alcohol, albeit at differing levels.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Heh ... that depends on the compound.

Benzodiazepines have notoriously long physical withdrawal periods; in fact, benzos are one of the few things where you're likely well past the psychological addiction while you're body is still going through cyclical chemical dependence behavior.

There's a reason 90% of the people who take Xanax, Ativan, and Diazepam never stop.

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Their nerves were "bad" because of the nicotine addiction. Saying nicotine is therapeutic because it calms symptoms related to nicotine addiction is kinda circular reasoning...

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Their nerves were bad because their ex-husband showed up and physically threatened them. Their nerves were bad because their wife just walked out on them. Their nerves were bad because of external stimuli that would have **** up anyone's nerves.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.