Did you quit smoking?

[Lestat]

It is different though, from actual tobacco.

It lacks the MAOI. This is quite noticeable. Tobacco smoke contains beta-carboline alkaloids of the harmala type, harmine, harmaline, not sure if tetrahydroharmine is present, all at quite low concentrations, but its enough to significantly change the experience, compared to pure nicotine delivered via inhalation, transdermally or orally.

Could murder a fag right now.



I definitely think it might be a worthwhile thing to attempt extracting a little harmine/harmaline from a plant like syrian rue (peganum harmala) although this does contain some unrelated quinazoline alkaloids, iirc with bronchodilator and adrenergic pressor effects) or better, Banisteriopsis caapi, yage vine. This contains mainly harmaline and THH. Its available as an ayahuasca admixture, as the MAOI source commercially.

[Semicolon]

  I have smoked about 10-12 cigarettes in my life, beginning at age 19 and ending at about age 33.
   I think of myself as a vicarious smoker.  I'm intrigued by the rituals and the posturing, and I liked
   some of the physical effects.  I've even had moments of tasting smoke and feeling as if I'd like a
   cigarette, *years* after my last one.  But I'll never have the habit, because I know better, and
   because I congest too easily as it is.  If I smoked I'd be sick all the time! 

I'm surprised you don't if you like rituals.

It is different though, from actual tobacco.

It lacks the MAOI. This is quite noticeable. Tobacco smoke contains beta-carboline alkaloids of the harmala type, harmine, harmaline, not sure if tetrahydroharmine is present, all at quite low concentrations, but its enough to significantly change the experience, compared to pure nicotine delivered via inhalation, transdermally or orally.

Could murder a fag right now.



I definitely think it might be a worthwhile thing to attempt extracting a little harmine/harmaline from a plant like syrian rue (peganum harmala) although this does contain some unrelated quinazoline alkaloids, iirc with bronchodilator and adrenergic pressor effects) or better, Banisteriopsis caapi, yage vine. This contains mainly harmaline and THH. Its available as an ayahuasca admixture, as the MAOI source commercially.

for British slang.

[Lestat]

I would definitely miss a couple of fags or a cigar/pipe in the morning, nicotine alone does not sate that requirement, regardless of the mode of delivery. It NEEDS the MAOI to be satisfying. Seemingly, without it, nicotine may well not be all that addictive, so I have read.

MMMM...nothing like a big fat stogie while rolling/tripping either (and I'm absolutely mullered right about now, courtesy of AMT, its needed right now)

["couldbecousin"]

  Bryan Cranston occasionally smokes when he is writing something.

[odeon]

He shouldn't or he may end up like one of his characters.

["couldbecousin"]

He shouldn't or he may end up like one of his characters.

  And Walter White had never even smoked before his diagnosis.  Rotten luck! 

[odeon]

He shouldn't or he may end up like one of his characters.

  And Walter White had never even smoked before his diagnosis.  Rotten luck! 

Cranston should, erm, apply himself.

["couldbecousin"]

  Cranston applied the hell out of himself on BB ... star, co-producer, and occasional director!

[odeon]

The stars tend to become co-producers after a couple of seasons. I guess it's to keep them from leaving or something. I noticed that Claire Danes is listed as one of the Homeland producers.

["couldbecousin"]

The stars tend to become co-producers after a couple of seasons. I guess it's to keep them from leaving or something. I noticed that Claire Danes is listed as one of the Homeland producers.

  According to what I read, one of Cranston's motives was to take some of the burden of daily decisions
  off Vince Gilligan, who is a detail-obsessed hard worker.  Cranston seems to have had a real leadership role
  on the set, keeping everyone's morale high and encouraging team spirit.  He sounds well worth his pay. 

[odeon]

He is supposedly a nice guy.

["couldbecousin"]

He is supposedly a nice guy.

  From what I've heard, both he and Aaron Paul are very nice guys, and they are buddies IRL too. 

["couldbecousin"]

  A friend at work transitioned from cigarettes to vaping, and at this point he's almost nicotine free. 

[FourAceDeal]

  A friend at work transitioned from cigarettes to vaping, and at this point he's almost nicotine free. 

I don't know anyone who has given up smoking using vaping.  I know plenty that use vaping to keep themselves hooked on nicotine while they have a break from real smoking, but it's not giving up.  I tried giving up using vaping but you fairly quickly realise that all your doing is swapping a dirty version of nicotine with a pure form of nicotine.  How is that better?  You just remain hooked on your drug, like going to heroin from opium.

The amount of people who look can look you straight in the eye and say "I have given up smoking" while they got a vapouriser in their hand....  it's self delusion, I'm afraid.

I did give up though.  3 years ago.  I used patches and pain.  Withdrawal is horrible.  But it's possible.

I bought a shit load of full strength patches off the internet cheap.  The clear plastic kind.  I kept smoking for about 6 weeks while on the patches.  I found at first the extra nicotine made me feel a bit sick, but over those six weeks I smoked less and less.  Eventually I was taking a couple of drags out of a cigarette and then thinking "that's enough" and putting it out.

I reached a point after six weeks where I went outside for a smoke, looked at the cigarette in my hand and thought "there's no point to this anymore".  So I stopped.

Kept on the full strength patches for 4 weeks.

Then I started cutting a quarter off each patch to reduce the dose.  I did this for a couple of weeks.

Then I started cutting a third of the patch to reduce the dose.  I did this for a couple of weeks.

Then I started cutting the patches in half.  This is great.  Your patches are now half price!

Remember all those thirds and quarter patch strips I had from, earlier?   They kept me going on a decreasing dose for another four weeks.  It was like, hey, free patches.

I have a box left over.  I cut two patches into five pieces and this lasted me the next 10 days on a really low dose.

I then considered cutting patches into sixes or sevens when I realised that I may as well take the jump and go nicotine clean.  I did.  The next three days were awful.  Withdrawal, even from such a low dose is horrible, but at that point you have gone through so much pain you daren't put yourself through it again.  But after a week I felt fine.  I was gernuinely smoke free.

For the next six months I still craved smoke - usually when I smelt other people smoking, but not enough to break back in to the habit.

After six months I went out with some friends and they offered me a cigarette and I wondered what would happen if I tried to smoke and I inhaled once and then coughed until I was nearly sick.  And it tasted like someone had just shit in my mouth.  I threw it away and that is the last time I ever smoked.

["couldbecousin"]

  True aversion sounds like the best and most permanent way of quitting.  I'm glad it worked.
  My friend at work is using progressively reduced amounts of nicotine in the liquid he uses in the vaporizer.
  I don't know how they work aside from what he's told me.  Apparently at this point he's just inhaling
  flavored air.  I hope it works for him long-term.  I wish my other smoking friends would quit.