How Important is Nicotine to You (After Quitting Cigs)

[--dante--]

I smoked cigarettes for 25+ years, quit ten years ago.

I quit cold turkey for about a month then picked up the pipe, which I couldn't understand while I smoked cigarettes: Why smoke something you don't inhale?

I enjoy the stronger blends. Nicotine has a place in my life.

One could argue that nicotine (or hallucinigens ) is the reason smoking _anything_ became a thing to begin with. In fact, I would argue that.

 

[chopper]

Can you link me to that report? I tried to find it but to no avail. Cheers.

Sorry no. It's something that I've read many times.
The report was from 1963 [IIRC] if that helps.

 

[Misanthrope]

I definitely feel nicotine’s effects with pipes, it’s just a way slower onset than cigarettes or vaping, and the satisfaction lasts quite a bit longer. When I’m particularly craving nicotine, I’ll just inhale a few times while smoking a pipe and that usually sorts it for me.

Cigarettes deliver a wallop straightaway in comparison, but it’s short-lived and people who are used to regularly receiving massive jolts of Vitamin N tend to get cranky when they go without. Cigarettes also usually reek and the smell sticks to you in an unpleasant manner, while with pipes, at least you have blend options that are a lot less obnoxious. I smell like pipe smoke after a bowl, but it doesn’t have that stale, rank funk you get from manufactured cigarettes.

Vaping is a bit weird—you can satisfy cravings with it, but it’s kind of a pain in the ass, has a neckbeard stigma to it, and I feel like having to wrangle electronics, batteries, liquids, and all that is a bit goofy. If you stick with the low end, you’re paying out the wazoo to suck down cookie-flavored steam, and if you skip that and go to the higher end stuff, you can get a much better tailored experience with the tradeoff of extra complexity.

Pipes are my happy sweet spot. I get actual tobacco smoke, I don’t have to inhale it, I can pick the right pipe for any given situation, you get the same flavor variety as with vaping, it doesn’t smell like an Union Carbide plant had an accident, it scratches my “fiddle with things” itch, and all you have to do is stick a wad of tobacco in the big hole, light it on fire, and occasionally sip tasty smoke from the small hole.

 

[Lyle b]

I’m sure this has been asked a million times before, but I’m interested in everyone’s perspective because up until two months ago, i didn’t smoke a pipe necessarily for the nicotine as I was smoking cigarettes and getting massive doses of it. I smoked a pipe for taste, generally, with the nic hit as a bonus.

These days, as Ive weaned off the cigarettes to zero, I find myself reaching for the high-test blends a lot more often, with English blends that I once craved taking a back seat somewhat. I often think to myself, “That sounds good, but I’m craving something stronger...” and then I smoke some Old Joe Krantz.

I still enjoy the lighter blends, just not as often. I’m really happy that I’ve cut out the Pall Malls, and my intense nicotine cravings have dissipated a great deal to the point where I don’t really *need* it...but when it comes time to smoke a pipe, I’m finding that nicotine strength is becoming one of the main drivers in my choice of tobaccos, and one of the main factors in what I find to be a satisfying smoke.

Any of you that have quit the cigs have the same experience? How important is the nicotine hit to you?

For me its all about taste now , if I wanted to smoke to something just for the nic I wouldn't of given cigs away , smoking cigs I've found was something I did till I discovered the joy of smoking a pipe , like growing a goatee it feels like something I was just ment to do and has been one of the better decisions I have made , just wish I had started sooner , live and learn I spose

 

[aguineapig]

I use snus (los), nasal snuff, and smoke a pipe. Nicotine is important, but I have a very low tolerance and self medicate with only a slow, small trickle. When I start to notice it (and it doesn't take much) is when I lay off. I was also the kind of drinker (when I drank) who was fine having 2 beers while out on the town. When I stop I don't notice much except my digestive health gets poorer after a few weeks and I'm not as sharp mentally.