The Nicotine Experience: Pipes Vs. Cigarettes vs. ?

A recent thread here about cigarettes got me thinking about the varied use of tobacco. I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes. Starting around 15-years-old rolling Drum and Smoking Export A's for the nice taste and hip aesthetic we somehow saw in it. I stopped smoking cigs at about 25-years-old after working for a number of years in smoked filled studio control rooms in the early '80's, smoking 2+ packs a day of Marlboro reds. At that point I would say that I was addicted to cigarettes, and the nicotine and what ever else was in the smoke was like a breath of fresh air that mellowed me out and got me going again. Eventually I quit cold turkey because I felt so saturated, my fingers, my clothes, everything, from being in such a heavy smoking environment. It was like what I imagine immersion therapies do. It was easy to quite then, as opposed to trying to quite before when I did't want to quit. I never went back to cigs. I took up pipe smoking about 5 years ago when my dad passed down his pipes to me, and I have been a regular moderate pipe smoker ever since. I average about 3 bowls a day. After five years I don't feel addicted to it like I did with cigs, and I have not needed to increase my consumption to feed any cravings. To me the nic in cigs was more forceful and dramatic. It knocked down the wound-up feeling I had from not smoking a cig and then perked me up. With the pipe it's integrated to the pleasure of the taste and mouth feel of smoking the tobacco in a pipe, much more mellow. I experience the same with the few cigars that I smoke. I smoke mostly medium body English and Virginias. A few times I have felt a bit ill from smoking blends with a lot of Burley or Perique, and this after smoking a pipe for a while. Not quite as green around the gills as the first time I smoked a cigar as a teen, but the same kind of nicotine overdose.

Why the difference? Is it simply a matter of inhaling cigs and not inhaling a pipe? Is there something more intrinsic to the different smokes?

5 a day ain't bad. For me it was really a matter of attitude. I tried quitting a few times because I felt like it was something that should do, but the problem was that I still really like smoking cigs, and when I quit I missed them and it was hard and I slipped back into it. When I did finally quit it was over night. I had some craving for a short while, but not enough to over come how grossed out I had become over the cigs. But I was in an environment where most of my co-workers were heavy smokers and it seemed like I was always immersed in cigs, and I had been up to 2+ packs a day for awhile. In my mind I had had enough, and quitting then was what I wanted, and therefore it was easy. After quitting I developed a disdain for cig smoke as I was still around a lot of it (this was the early '80's). That has changed as I am not around it much anymore, and I actually like the smell of some cigs when I am around someone is smoking, although I don't indulge. I feel for smokers; it's often hard indulging in any tobacco use nowadays. It's hard enough for me to slip in a pipe or two now when I am around other people. But I live in the late great Golden State.

ohhhhh....Gauloise. I enjoyed those and Gitanes. I considered them the espresso of the cigarette world, and actually quite nice with an espresso after a good meal. Yea, here in CA it sure ain't the good old days any more. I remember what it like before the smoking bans. Things seemed to work pretty well back when there were smoking and non-smoking sections. Once the issue of people being subjected to second hand smoke in the workplace took hold things changed quickly.

Back to Gauloise and coffee: I love the scene in the film, "Wings of Desire", where Peter Faulk is smoking a cig and drinking a cup of coffee and telling the angel how good each one is, a cigarette and a cup of coffee. As far as European cigarettes go, the best cigarettes I ever had was a pack of Sobranie that someone brought back from England. I wonder if they still taste as good as I remember.

Cheers