I smoked tobacco in a pipe for a while. It's a completely different thing to smoking cigarettes. Cigarettes seem like a compulsive, ugly thing, but smoking a pipe is a luxury you can enjoy. The jury is still out on the impact on health: probably it spares your lungs, but it might still give you throat and mouth cancers. It definitely doesn't affect your breathing to the same extent. There are some very interesting, organic tobaccos available for pipe smokers, and good pipe tobacco smells much nicer than cigarette smoke.
In the end, I gave it away, though. I put on quite a lot of weight after I stopped and have never really lost it again. Occasionally, I still crave a nicotine rush. When I do, I chew nicotine gum. Mainly, I gave up because it makes doing breathing exercises (pranayama) much more difficult.
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