Yeah, once you remove the hazards inherent in cigarette and/or cigar smoking from the discussion, the only solid objection I've heard to nictotine consumption is that it's probably more addictive than caffeine.

I understand why personal vaporizer use was demonized, but -goddamn- that's going to be a public health disaster only an order of magnitude or two smaller than when folks started demonizing nuclear power back in the mid 1900's.

> the only solid objection I've heard to nictotine consumption is that it's probably more addictive than caffeine.

s/probably/massively. You don't see ads and public health messages for quitting coffee, you don't see bans for coffee advertising, but you do see a whole lot of things aimed at reducing or quitting nicotine products.

Besides, nicotine withdrawal is utter hell. Caffeine withdrawal usually is solved by a night of good healthy sleep - most people drink coffee (or energy drinks) only because they are forced by circumstances to work against their chronotype.

> You don't see ads and public health messages for quitting coffee, you don't see bans for coffee advertising,

You would if coffee has the same probability of causing cancer as smoking.

Being addictive on its own is rarely a reason to demonise a substance. The addictive substances that are demonised are always those that also have negative health effects, even in moderation (like smoking).

> You don't see ads and public health messages for quitting coffee, you don't see bans for coffee advertising...

That'd be because -unlike cigarette and cigar smoking- coffee doesn't create a substantially elevated risk of cancer.

Had we had the tech for portable personal nicotine vaporizers back in the 1600s [0] and retained it until today, I very strongly expect that -other than the "Drugs of all kinds are bad!" moralizers- you'd not see much of that sort of concern.

> Besides, nicotine withdrawal is utter hell.

Waaaay back when when I quit cold turkey after smoking for a couple of years I was very grouchy and irritable (and knew that a cigarette would fix it) for like a week. That was it. I've not tried nicotine vaporizers, but I'd be interested to see if -given similarly sized nicotine doses- quitting vaporized nicotine after a couple of years is as annoying as quitting cigarettes was.

> Caffeine withdrawal usually is solved by a night of good healthy sleep...

That tells me that you haven't gone through serious caffeine withdrawal. The effects from quitting caffeine cold turkey last for less time, but way more unpleasant than quitting cigarettes.

[0] ...or whenever it was that tobacco smoking started to become A Thing...

As an avid consumer of both nicotine and caffeine I can say a few things.

Caffeine is way worse for me, the days that I consume zero caffeine I pretty much always end up with a migrate and minor. If I don't use my vaporizer, I get mildly irritated by not having it around but no prominent physiological effects

> ...I pretty much always end up with a migrate and minor.

Minor what?

And yeah, two things:

1) It's telling that -despite the fact that the closest store that I get my coffee and tea from also sells cigarettes (and that I'm so obviously old that they don't ask me for ID, so that minor inconvenience isn't a factor)- I've been able to quit nicotine, but never able to quit caffeine.

2) I can't even count the number of times I've consumed a mug of tea or coffee for no other reason than to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Cigarettes were never like that for me. Just like caffeine, I inevitably developed a tolerance... but working through nicotine withdrawal was annoying, rather than _painful_.

Ironically, I wrote that post with a migraine. Migraine and a minor headache are what I meant to say.

There are lots of yummy drinks that contain caffeine which is a shame for those quitting but a boon for myself, I personally like the taste of redbull much to my dentists dismay