According to Wigand, some people describe feeling less stressed while others feel more alert after smoking. In order to increase nicotine's effect, Wigand reports that sugars are added. Ammonia is also used to make nicotine more readily transferred to the brain. Laser perforation of the filter, electrostatic perforations of the cigarette paper and additives to the paper like cocoa, honey, licorice and glycerol are all employed to facilitate delivery of nicotine to the smoker. He says that a non-nicotine cigarette called Next was a dismal sales failure.
People clearly smoke for the nicotine.
And nicotine is a powerfully addictive agent. According to Wigand, nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, with anywhere from one to 10 cigarettes capable of causing addiction. How often people need to get a nicotine fix is also deliberately engineered. Wigand says the body needs to replace nicotine every 18-22 minutes. This is called compensation.