Nicotine is a brilliantly malevolent molecule. It stimulates reward receptors in the brain that light up with satisfaction at a job well done. The addict registers its absence as an agony of incompletion. The next dose bathes the aching brain in a glow of bogus accomplishment. This makes tobacco great business. The customer can’t stop coming back for the product.
As an ex-smoker, I can testify that many of those purchases feel rational. Cravings are unpleasant. Making them go away by the most efficient means available seems like an obvious, necessary course of action. While that choice has been made without external compulsion, it is conditioned by addiction, which promotes short-term, impulsive behaviour and mutes the cognitive processes required for more analytical judgment.
