It could have saved his life, if it helped him stop smoking. Were you a
smoker, Craig?
Lobeline is basically a nicotine-like drug. It's structurally related to
nicotine and competes for the same nicotinic acetylcholine brain receptors
that nicotine does. It has stimulant effects at low doses and depressant
effects at high doses, like nicotine does. (This is why cigarettes are so
evil. They let the user titrate the dose. A smoker who feels tired will
instinctively put a cigarette out when it's burned halfway, because a low
nicotine dose helps him "snap out of it" and feel more alert and able to
concentrate. A smoker who feels nervous will instinctively smoke two or
three cigarettes down to their butts to help him calm down.)
There are no smokable forms of lobeline. If there were, "lobelia cigarettes"
(or whatever) might be as addictive like tobacco cigarettes. A low dose of
lobeline makes nicotine more powerful, and a high dose of lobeline deadens
nicotine's effects. As if it were additional nicotine itself.
When lobeline is administered to healthy nonsmokers it gives them apnea,
cough, the feeling of choking, weird breathing where they try to keep their
lungs full, and pressure in the throat and chest. (It sounds like the first
cigarette you ever smoke, actually.)
A bunch of studies looked into it as an anti-smoking aid. It's not really
good at that because you have to take it orally which makes the dose
impossible to control instinctively from minute to minute, like you can as
you smoke a ciggie. So it feels like a lousy substitute. It doesn't help
people stop smoking but it does make them smoke fewer cigarettes- for a
couple days. Then they go back to the previous rate as they build up a
tolerance to lobeline. It becomes a part of their nicotine addiction. When
the lobeline is taken away, they smoke ferociously to compensate. It's not
recommended as an anti-smoking aid anymore. No other uses have been found
for it yet.
Possibly the dose Craig took was a low one and helped him snap out of
whatever daze he might have been in- so he realized that he should pull
over.
I tried Lobelia myself as a nonsmoker, in my crazier days 20 years ago. I
don't remember feeling any different. But as I age, and storms rage through
my mind... the memories grow dim, and falter.
-Jason
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