Hey friend,

Cigarettes are fucking disgusting. But that didn’t stop me from experimenting as a teenager…

In my friend group, it was tradition to have a pack on hand after blazing a fat bowl of ganja.

I even bought my own sometimes—starting with Camel Crush (remember crushing that little menthol ball in the filter? Yeah… we were young and dumb).

During one particularly long LSD phase, every trip meant chain-smoking an entire pack. It was just what we did—high on Lucy, puff after puff.

Until one trip changed everything...

I was introducing my girlfriend to acid. We were mid-trip, vibing hard—beautiful, intense, and lucid.

Out on her balcony, we lit a cigarette… took one drag… and immediately looked at each other with pure disgust.

Normally, I’d be inhaling more tobacco smoke than air. But something shifted.

I flicked the cigarette off the balcony, then tossed the whole pack after it. That was it.

Haven’t touched a cigarette since.

That one trip rewired something deep in me.

While friends around me slipped into addiction, LSD gave me a clean break, effortless and final. And I’m still grateful for that.

My take on nicotine

While I firmly believe—and it's extremely obvious—that cigarettes cause serious harm, I don’t think the same is true for low-dose nicotine itself.

Those commercial tobacky sticks are loaded with hundreds of chemicals that make them highly addictive and toxic.

Let me explain.

What is nicotine?

Like caffeine (and even mescaline), nicotine is a plant defense chemical that evolved to deter predators such as insects, fungi, and animals.

Caffeine, the world’s most consumed psychoactive, is found in coffee, green tea, and yerba mate. Nicotine comes from the same chemical family and is most concentrated in tobacco, but also shows up in trace amounts in other nightshades like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplant. [1]

Yes, nicotine is toxic in extreme doses. But in the right amount—specifically microdosed—it can be surprisingly therapeutic and performance-enhancing.

How does nicotine work?

When nicotine reaches your brain, it binds to nicotinic receptors (which is where the name comes from).

This activates pathways—cholinergic, dopaminergic, glutamatergic, and GABAergic—that regulate attention, memory, motor skills, and pleasure.

Nicotine as a nootropic

Due to its unique pharmacological properties, nicotine is showing potential for enhancing both cognitive function and physical performance, including:

• Improving short-term memory [2] and memory consolidation [3]
• Enhancing reaction time [4]
• Improving sports performance [5]
• Suppressing appetite [6]
• Boosting coordination and motor function [7,8]
• Heightening attention [9], concentration [10], and cognitive accuracy [11]

Nicotine negatives

I hate to burst your bubble, because nicotine’s cognitive and performance perks do seem impressive, but the risks are very real.

It’s addictive because it activates the brain’s “pleasure pathway” — the mesolimbic dopamine system.

This is the same system triggered by sex, social media, and junk food, flooding your brain with dopamine.

Over time, repeated stimulation can dull this system. Dopamine receptors become less sensitive, requiring a greater stimulus to achieve the same reward.

Eventually, you don’t feel normal without it — that’s how dependence begins…

Other potential downsides of nicotine include:

• It’s toxic at high doses—remember, it’s a potent plant defense chemical. Large amounts can be dangerous, even fatal, to small pets or infants (store with care).
• Moderate to high doses may raise blood pressure [12] and reduce heart rate variability. [13]
• Some evidence suggests it could increase inflammation by inhibiting IL-10, an anti-inflammatory cytokine. [14]

That said, many of these risks come from higher doses—something I don’t recommend.

The optimal nicotine dose

The downsides of nicotine are real, but I understand people will experiment regardless. That’s why I want you to be informed and use it safely and effectively.

If you choose to use nicotine, keeping the dose as low as possible helps minimize risks while enhancing benefits.

In other words, microdose nicotine.

Recommended dosage:

1–2 mg

Best forms of nicotine

We’ve already established that smoking and chewing tobacco are a hard no.

E-cigarettes and vapes aren’t much better; they’re still carcinogenic and harmful to your lungs and overall health.

That leaves five "safer" options for microdosing nicotine (ranked from best to decent):

1. Lozenge — Most are packed with artificial sweeteners and additives like aspartame, which I avoid. The only brand I trust is nicnac.com, which offers clean lozenges you can easily break into smaller microdoses.
2. Spray — Nicotine sprays offer fast, precise dosing (typically 1mg per spray) and kick in within minutes. However, they can sometimes irritate the mouth or throat.
3. Inhaler — Like sprays, nicotine inhalers deliver quick effects. It mimics the hand-to-mouth ritual of smoking, making it helpful for those quitting cigarettes. Though, like the majority of the options, some products may still contain artificial additives.
4. Patches — Most deliver too high a dose for microdosing, but cutting them into tiny pieces can make it workable. They offer a slow, steady release of nicotine through the skin, providing a stable and sustained effect.
5. Gum — Constant chewing can overstimulate the trigeminal nerve, potentially stressing your jaw and nervous system. Most gums also contain questionable additives, making this the least ideal option.

Cigarettes are one of the worst things you can put in your body—something LSD made painfully clear to me.

But nicotine, on its own, does show promise for enhancing cognitive and even physical performance.

That said, it’s a moderate-risk nootropic… not for everyone.

If you don’t struggle with addictive tendencies and can maintain strong self-control, microdosing nicotine occasionally (during intense work sessions, for example) can be an effective tool.

It’s something I’ve been experimenting with myself while deep in the trenches building my first-ever microdosing course (more on that soon).

But if you have a low threshold for habit formation or addictive patterns, I’d recommend steering clear.

I’m curious:

Did you know nicotine can deliver powerful cognitive boosts?

Have you ever tried microdosing nicotine?

If so, how did it affect your focus and motor function?

Hit reply and let me know.

Onjae