Can Reducing Nicotine Help Wean Smokers?

[Vocalek]

I don't know if a medical journal counts as a news source, and this article is 2 years old. But it does illustrate the mind-set we are up against.

Can Reducing Nicotine Help Wean Smokers? -- Beckman 99 (10): 749 -- JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute

JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2007 99(10):749-750; doi:10.1093/jnci/djk218
Can Reducing Nicotine Help Wean Smokers?

One set of researchers advocates for reducing nicotine in cigarettes as the way to stamp out smoking.

Other researchers point out that when nicotine is reduced, smokers compensate by smoking more and/or inhaling more deeply.

This guy would appear to be in our corner, but the "it looks like smoking" factor could be a drawback in his mind:

"I would envision making nicotine replacement therapies easy to get, while phasing out nicotine from cigarettes so smoke doesn't get linked with nicotine usage," Rose says. "Right now it's just the opposite. The clean nicotine is hard to get and it's easy to get the cancer-causing one."

Your thoughts?

 

[Vocalek]

Another dialog on the topic:

Nicotine replacement products: the pros and cons

Cancer Council New South Wales :: Nicotine replacement products: the pros and cons

 

[four2109]

I never switched on purpose, but when I accidently got light cigarettes, I cut the filter off at the perforation and finished them. More careful on next purchase.

 

[Superstargoddess]

I am not sure how to answer this question. I do not think that the nic strength affects how much I smoke. I think that it is all about the throat hit and keeping my hands busy to me. I seemed to go through Ultra Lights more than I would go through Full Flavors. So I think that for me it's a mental thing, not a physical need for nic thing.

 

[a2dcovert]

I have noticed that I am having strong withdrawal symptoms by vaping 24mg nic juice. I have started getting all the 36 I can find. I don't want to fail at this. I wish we had a better idea of how much nicotine we are actually absorbing from drags on these e-cigs. All I know for sure is that 24mg nic juice is not enough for me.

k

 

[grimmer255]

Well I started with 18mg and with in three months I dropped to 6mg and been vaping that for almost 2 months now. I have actually cut my vaping down compared to when I smoked analogs. I pick it up as much as I would pick up a cigarette but I take far less drags now. Maybe two or three drags and thats it. I guess its about cutting your habbit as well. When you smoke analogs you tend to smoke the whole cigarette which is around 10-15 drags. So try taking fewer drags until you reach 2 or three and then lower your mg level. It may work for you.

 

[aditas]

I never switched on purpose, but when I accidently got light cigarettes, I cut the filter off at the perforation and finished them. More careful on next purchase.

OMG I thought I was the only one doing this. I hate lights and ultra lights because they draw too much air and it forces smoke deep into the lungs.

 

[a2dcovert]

Well I started with 18mg and with in three months I dropped to 6mg and been vaping that for almost 2 months now. I have actually cut my vaping down compared to when I smoked analogs. I pick it up as much as I would pick up a cigarette but I take far less drags now. Maybe two or three drags and thats it. I guess its about cutting your habbit as well. When you smoke analogs you tend to smoke the whole cigarette which is around 10-15 drags. So try taking fewer drags until you reach 2 or three and then lower your mg level. It may work for you.

I have been vaping since March. I had my last analog in May. I am addicted to nicotine plain and simple. I wish I could just wish it away and it would go away. That is not going to happen. My choices are to make this work or fail and go back to cigarettes. After many attempts at quitting I know exactly what is going on and I recognize the symptoms.

K

 

[Princessdee]

Just for another point of view.
It might not agree with someone else's view, but it works for me.

I smoked for almost 40 years. I had worked my way up to 3 packs a day.
I started to vape with 24mg. I cut cigarettes down immediately, but there was still "something".

I accidentally ordered 36mg juice instead of 24. Got it the 3rd day of my vaping.
No more cigarettes!

(And I have NEVER had a "buzz" from 36mg, and it does not make me sick. Then again, I didn't get a "buzz" from smoking. Not that I can remember. Probably did at the very first, when I was a teenager)

Bottom line, if that's what it takes for you, do it.

 

[Superstargoddess]

I have noticed that I am having strong withdrawal symptoms by vaping 24mg nic juice. I have started getting all the 36 I can find. I don't want to fail at this. I wish we had a better idea of how much nicotine we are actually absorbing from drags on these e-cigs. All I know for sure is that 24mg nic juice is not enough for me.

k

Yeah, I'm convinced then that my addiction isn't primarily with the nicotine then. I have smoked everything from Ultra Lights to the nastiest full flavor pieces of crap on earth for many months before I quit, so I'm sure that those were packed with high nic.

I don't notice anything with having any kind of withdrawl. I'm vaping the 24mg as well, and I hear that real analogs can go up to somewhere around 40mg or so, correct? It doesn't bother me at all to vape with 24mg, I notice no difference whatsoever. I'll have to get off my .... and google for the nic content that was in those last horrible analogs that I was smoking just to see how strong they were.

 

[Superstargoddess]

(And I have NEVER had a "buzz" from 36mg, and it does not make me sick. Then again, I didn't get a "buzz" from smoking. Not that I can remember. Probably did at the very first, when I was a teenager).

Yeah, you did, I'm sure of it. I'm only 32, so I still remember having my first hit off an analog when I was 12. (Didn't start smoking more regularly until I was 16 and had a car, but tried it a few times when I was 12 and a friend convinced me to try it)

I distinctly remember getting a huge head rush and thinking "Wow, I'm high!" in that stupid way that a 12 year old would. I felt that head rush for a little bit of time after the first time I had an analog, that's for sure. But since you can't remember, I'll help you remember.

Edit: Heck, I still remember exactly where we were standing smoking the analog for the first time when I was 12 years old! It was out by an old building at my junior high school! My birthday is in August, so I got to start junior high just after I turned 12.

 

[Vocalek]

I have been vaping since March. I had my last analog in May. I am addicted to nicotine plain and simple. I wish I could just wish it away and it would go away. That is not going to happen. My choices are to make this work or fail and go back to cigarettes. After many attempts at quitting I know exactly what is going on and I recognize the symptoms.

K

I'm with you. I either need an adequate source of nicotine or a medication that will prevent the buildup of Lewy bodies in of my brain. Since they haven't invented the second one, I'm stuck with nicotine.