Despite decades of public health campaigns, smoking remains stubbornly persistent. Around 10% of American adults still smoke cigarettes, while millions more use e-cigarettes and other nicotine products . Nicotine is among the most addictive substances known, altering the brain’s reward pathways and making quitting notoriously difficult.  Most people who smoke want to stop . Many try repeatedly before they succeed.  I first tried to quit smoking when I was 24 years old. By then, I’d already been smoking for 13 years; I’d started when I was 11 years old by picking up discarded cigarette butts in the neighborhood while I was out wandering. This was made possible because I was left home alone for exceedingly long stretches of time. I was mostly very lonely and lost.  Smoking was my small yet very satisfying declaration of war. Against the people who didn’t love me the way they were supposed to. Against a childhood that didn’t look like other kids’.…