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Comment by bitxbitxbitcoin | Hacker News Reader

They can now optimize the "perfect" amount of nicotine in each hit now that'll maximize profit while accounting for lifespan.

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Nicotine is dirt cheap. Here [1], you or I could buy 5 gallons of 100mg/ml liquid base for $750. Typical eliquid is sold in 3-6 mg/ml, so that could be diluted to produce 420 liters of ejuice. A 60ml bottle of juice sells for ~$25 on the high end; simple math leads to six figures of revenue from that single jug.

Of course, none of that includes flavoring. Flavoring, and the process, clean rooms, scientific equipment, that's the actual expensive part and why you'd never actually see those six figures. The nicotine itself is pretty much a rounding error in the total cost of the product.

[1] https://liquidnicotinewholesalers.com/100mg-nicotine-liquid....

Nicotine is no worse for you than caffeine; it’s not what kills you in cigarettes, it’s just what makes them pleasurable.

Battery is dead. Guess I'll just satisfy my addiction with some cigs.

Or gum. Or patches. Or lozenges. Or go buy another vape or recharge your battery. You'd have to go out and buy the cigarettes anyway. It's not like they magically appear in your home.

Quite. Who the fuck wants to smell of smoke when you can just have lozenges or the gum? Also: actual cigarettes are prohibitively expensive in most countries.

I can think of several gas stations, liquor stores and convenience stores that sell neither nicotine gum, patches nor lozenges. They all sell cigarettes, though.

This is not correct. Nicotine may be carcinogenic on its own and is definitely implicated in the advancement of cancer in the presence of other carcinogens, and it interferes with cancer response in the body and even cancer treatment. Caffeine has none of these properties and the usual vehicle for caffeine (coffee) has demonstrated protective effects against various cancers, heart disease, and diabetes.

You're a PhD in a medicine/biology field I hope? Because otherwise, it might seem overly presumptuous to think you fully understand the effects of nicotine on health enough to make overarching conclusions. Like, the effects on atherosclerosis.

AFAIK you can choose your nicotine dosage. It's how people slowly quit.

True! You can for the most part but there are definitely brands where you get what you're given.

I smoked for around ten years. Switching to a vape with a ~12mg nicotine fluid took me 48hrs to completely put down cigarettes. Cut that nicotine mixture down to half that shortly after. Now I find myself using the vape for around a minute two to three times a day, and reducing that usage to nil.

It's worked far better than any traditional methods to quit. I haven't touched a cigarette in three months.

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