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by drdeca 2314 days ago
I’m under the impression that alcohol is substantially less chemically addictive than Nicotine. Is that correct?
4 comments

This is actually a surprisingly difficult question to answer. If you had asked specifically about tobacco, you'd be correct. But, nicotine itself may not be as addictive as tobacco products are.

Remember that tobacco contains many other compounds that influence how the body metabolizes things (MAOI's and such). Here's a link with some citations: http://www.healthnz.co.nz/Addiction_TobNic.htm

EDIT: My personal anecdote is that I tried vaping when the first 901 ecigs started to hit the US market: the idea was twofold. I wanted to assess whether there was any cognitive benefit in using nicotine through a cleaner delivery system and I also wanted to get my dad to quit smoking cigarettes. Both goals were failures, I found it too difficult to dose reliably using this method and the side effects weren't worth it to me. I did not find myself addicted after around a month of use.

Substantially less chemically addictive, but causes a much higher degree of social harm for those who do get addicted.
Much more harmful even if you are not addicted. Take road accidents and fights for example.
You can die from quitting alcohol cold-turkey, which is not true for nicotine.
Was about to post this. They're really very different addictions. Nicotine withdrawal is mostly medically harmless.
This is a good point, and I either didn’t know or forgot that
I’m under the impression that alcohol is substantially less chemically addictive than Nicotine. Is that correct?

Doesn't addictiveness vary from person to person?