As soon as they come out with a cigarette version (they’re saying Nov. 2007), I’m so buying this.

If I can get nicotine, in a cigarette-facsimile that gives me the same tactile experience (or close to it), I don’t need to actually smoke. I’m just one of those oddballs who actually likes the smoking process, but I’m more than happy to give up the carcinogens — not to mention the expense, the lingering smell, and the abuse it gives my lungs. If this thing is half as good as it looks, I’ll be more than happy to pay what they’re asking.

It’s available in full flavor, medium and light versions, with decreasing levels of nicotine. They even have a zero-nicotine version. Crazy, but crazy good.

I’d love to do one of these at work, and tell them to fuck off when they get on my case, since work is a no-tobacco zone — and there’s no tobacco in these!!!

(I’m going to ask my doctor about these. One of the biggest reasons people fail at quitting smoking, she told me, is that smokers who quit are — for anywhere from 3 to 18 months after they quit, depending on the person — physiologically unable to process serotonin as non-smokers do. Serotonin is needed in the brain to achieve and maintain well-being, and it cannot pass the blood-brain barrier when taken orally. The vast majority of smokers who quit have the same symptoms as people who are seriously clinically depressed — which explains very nicely why some antidepressants, such as Wellbutrin, are actually marketed as stop-smoking products. The medication I take as a migraine preventative inhibits the re-uptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine, making serotonin stay in the synapses longer — and my smoking has actually decreased since I’ve been on the preventative. Maybe not by what most non-smokers would consider a lot, but I have gone from 25 or 30 cigarettes a day down to 18 or 20.)