In far too many countries and media outlets of all sorts, nicotine is instantly associated with cigarettes, which is of course, associated with cancer. That viewpoint is unfortunate, as nicotine, itself, is not carcinogenic, despite all the efforts certain medical and governmental authorities have gone to in order to prove something that is fundamentally false. This means that nicotine, should be looked upon for what it is, a naturally occurring alkaloid substance which is a stimulant from the nightshade family of plants, which has far more in common with caffeine, than most people might suppose, yet, for the ignorant, is vilified as a dangerous substance in of itself, which it is not.
What is always amusing is the lack of discernment displayed by a significant amount of the population, which allows it to get duped by authorities over and over again, as if these authorities know everything, see everything, and are always right. The simplest thing for authorities to say is that the smoking of cigarettes which contains nicotine as well as many other chemicals is that smoking is dirty, dangerous, addictive, carcinogenic, harmful, and nasty with no redeeming positive qualities, whatsoever, and to pass this one-sided misstated propaganda nonsense as gospel. If all this was really true, then nobody would smoke on a consistent basis, because without some sort of pleasure or positive return from the act of smoking, one's interest would quickly and completely vaporize.
The fact of the matter is, that it is nicotine, that attracts people to the act of smoking and it is nicotine that provides the smoker of such, the stimulant that relieves apathy, increases dopamine, improves concentration, and suppresses appetite. It's a shame that caffeine gets a virtual free pass as a substance that is fine to consume, whereas nicotine, which provides comparable effects does not, mainly because one is typically consumed in a socially acceptable way, as in drinking coffee, whereas the other is consumed in an increasingly intolerant way, which is smoking.
Beginning in the 1940s, doctors first theorized that the smoking of cigarettes lead to and was the major contributing factor for pulmonary disease, a theory which since that time has been conclusively proved, although even this proven scientific fact has exceptions to it, by virtue that the incidence of lung cancer for native Japanese smokers is substantially lower than American smokers, indicating that correlations of smoking cigarettes and the incidence of cancer are empirically more diverse in their relationship than is typified by governmental assertions of such.
It is unfortunate, that in the United States' rush to judgment on nicotine, that they have found this naturally occurring plant substance to be guilty of being a carcinogen and/or of being a blight upon mankind, whereas in actuality, it is not, and is in point of fact, beneficial in many respects to those that partake of it, as long as it is consumed in a manner that isolates nicotine away from other substances that are known or are strongly suspected to be cancer causing in of themselves. This helps to explain why so many are drawn to smoking in the first place, despite virulent negative outcry, which is that the smoking of products with nicotine, provides positive benefits for the smoker, to which, it is hoped that nicotine will one day, be seen for what it really is, a natural stimulant, much akin to caffeine.