<He smoked for over 40 years, then suddenly quit cold turkey. That suggests to me that he was never chemically addicted to nicotine. I also know two other men who smoked for decades (40 years and 20 years, respectively) and then quit cold turkey. Perhaps they were never addicted, either. This isn't to suggest that cigarettes aren't addictive to many, perhaps most, people. It does suggest that some people can smoke without being addicted for some reason.

This is a little odd...it implies that those who quit smoking are not addicted, while those who don't obviously are. Isn't that argument a little bit circular? Are people who just like to smoke by definition "addicted" then? That nicotine is addictive is a given, and that some people may be more sensitive than others may also be true, but IMO if someone really wants to quit smoking, they can. Many do, and many did, and without fancy "patches" and other things.

My wife quit smoking in college when I gave her a plant for a gift and told her smoking would kill it. Out of all the tricks I tried, this one worked, and she just plain stopped. No fits, no problems. Cold turkey. So I guess she wasn't "addicted." Maybe some people just don't complain as much about the problems of quitting than others do.

As with many ex-smokers, she became violently antismoker, and now hates the smell of the stuff.