<p>You’re doing it again. Completely ignoring the overall picture.</p>
<p>I’ll dumb this down for you.</p>
<p>Nicotine gum and patches = cognitive enhancement</p>
<p>cigarettes = cognitive enhancement + health side effects (primarily via the lungs)</p>
<p>I hope that you can understand that.</p>
<p>You realize that the same argument you’re making can be made for cocaine use right?</p>
<p>I’m getting so tired of this. Do you want me to go look for other studies on PubMed? What about studies that say e.g. exposure to carbon monoxide in cigarette-sized doses has some positive benefit? You’ve already taken nicotine off the table…</p>
<p>How is saying that I can’t use nicotine as a positive of cigarettes any different from saying that you can’t consider acetaminophen as a benefit of Tylenol capsules? The capsules are a means for dosing yourself with acetaminophen.</p>
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I never said nor implied that smoking didn’t have negative consequences on the lungs and/or respiratory health. Even you agree that it has benefits, i.e., can be considered positive (though perhaps not entirely). You never said that the net effect had to be positive, just that I had to find a study that touted the positive benefits of smoking. How have I not done that?</p>
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So? Cocaine does certainly have positive benefits. That’s why it has been used medicinally.</p>
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<p>People use tobacco for one reason and one reason alone. Physical drug addiction. They have to get their drug. The brain chemistry screams for the drug as soon as the nicotine plasma levels fall.</p>
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<p>Yes you are. You are a nicotine junkie. You can’t quit. Given the games you play to rationalize and/or deny your drug addiction, you have zero chance of quitting smoking.</p>
<p>^ You have no idea who I am. You can go on believing that I’m a nicotine junkie… but if you can find the time, you can try to grow up. Also, my status as a nicotine junkie (or otherwise) is not a valid basis for an argument.</p>