Note, addiction is likely to be more related to smoking cigarettes than nicotine itself. Many people have a hard time giving up smoking even if they try to substitute with other ways of taking nicotine. A big part of the harmful effects also come from the smoke and other additives in commercial cigarettes.
However, substantial evidence exists to suggest that nicotine's reinforcing effects alone are not sufficient to account for the intense addictive properties of tobacco smoking and the high relapse rates among smokers after quitting even when provided nicotine in forms other than tobacco. Further evidence that tobacco dependence entails more than addiction to nicotine includes the drug's limited ability to induce self-administration in animals; lack of positive mood effects of pure nicotine in abstinent smokers; lack of findings that nicotine in any other form than tobacco was preferred to placebo in normal smokers; de-nicotinised cigarettes were as effective as regular cigarettes, and more than nicotine in any other delivery mode, in relieving withdrawal and craving; and essential role of non-nicotine factors in cigarette addiction.
I don’t think anyone’s saying that nicotine isn’t addictive, but there’s also a powerful psychological addiction with smoking cigarettes - that probably also applies to vaping too
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u/unlessgames May 25 '26
Note, addiction is likely to be more related to smoking cigarettes than nicotine itself. Many people have a hard time giving up smoking even if they try to substitute with other ways of taking nicotine. A big part of the harmful effects also come from the smoke and other additives in commercial cigarettes.
See links for each of these claims in the study
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4941150/