Month: April 2003

Note: This is a post by veritas.

The lack of postings on my behalf is due to the fact that I’ve been
taking a break from substances, and still am. Don’t ask, it’s a really
long story. 🙂 Long story short – I have a strong inclination (read:
dependency issues) towards stimulants, which I’ve chosen to ignore and
it took a good friend to make me realize (read: admit) my stimulant
usage can no longer be properly described with the adjective ‘moderate’
anymore, and so I’m staying away from all substances of that class for
a while to regain perspective. Flush, flush, ho hum. No one likes to
talk about the dark side. Anyway, here’s a legal review for a change –
the Nicorette Inhaler
[nicorette.com.au]. This is marketed as a product to assist in stopping
smoking and retails for A$5.45 for the starter pack with 6 cartridges.

Inside the starter pack is the inhaler tube (wrapped), the 6
cartridges (sealed), a booklet and a plastic pack for storing the
inhaler tube and cartridges.

The cartridges are sealed into a pack containing 6 cartridges. This is the front view:

This is the back view:

The cartridges are supposed to contain 10 mg of “nicotinum” each,
which is a time release nicotine formula by Nicorette. This is a side
view of an individual cartridge:

Notice the cotton center which has the actual goods. Here’s an isometric view to show the sealed edges:

What you’re supposed to do it to put the cartridge into the inhaler
tube and screw it in. This breaks the foils you see on the edges of the
cartridge picture above and releases the nicotine contained in the
cotton center of the cartridge.

After the cartridge is in place inside the inhaler tube, you’re
supposed to use it like a normal cigarette – inhale, exhale. Each
cartridge has the equivalent of 10 mg of nicotine and is supposed to
last for 20 minutes of continuous use. Upon consulting my pack of
Marlboro Reds I noticed that each cigarette contains 1.0 mg or less of
nicotine.

Now this is really funny because using one of the cartridges is not
10 times stronger than smoking a cigarette, at least not in my
experience. I’ve used the cartridges over a period of a couple of days
and the experiences have been much less than smoking a regular
cigarette. Don’t get me wrong, having two of the Nicorette Inhaler
cartridges in a row will floor your ass, but it just doesn’t feel the
same. This is what a used cartridge looks like:

The inhalers has a nicotine buzz that sorta creeps up on you, you
don’t feel it until after a while and then it still doesn’t feel like
the buzz that you get off a cigarette. It just doesn’t feel the same.
The stuff inside the cartridges can be a bit harsh too if you inhale
too hard, it’s like inhaling aerosolized water droplets. A regular
cigarette produces a light headed buzz that this product doesn’t
emulate. I think this light headed buzz is because of the carbon
monoxide content in a normal cigarette.

Well, I don’t think Nicorette Inhalers is anything like smoking a
regular cigarette, but it’s better than nicotine gum for quitting
smoking. You still get the experience of “holding a cigarette” and you
go through the same motions as smoking a cigarette. It does give you a
nicotine buzz too, and even though the buzz is different from a regular
cigarette, it can reduce the craving (for a while at least) and it’s
convenient to have in places where you can’t light up, like in a
cinema, lecture theatre, office etc. But that’s defeating the purpose
of the product, this something to help you quit smoking, not a
convenient replacement for it. 🙂