Well, this churned up some more differences in opinion.
Notnormal, I think you're right, that there are differences in how people use and cope and recover.
Get, I remember you saying you thought cigarettes were a formidable gateway drug, and I can see that in a way. That and caffeine were the first things I tried, and they're the ones that I still use.
I'm not on the same page as others with the axe to grind on the "using" of cigarettes though when it comes to sheer intoxication. I mean, think about yourself in your active addiction. I got through 5 days of no smoking a few months ago and was proud of that (big deal, really, but it starts somewhere). It seems illogical to say that smoking is the harder one to quit when I see alcohol as the more fierce addiction (for me), but that's how it is. There is an insanity to smoking and the interlacing with moods, but being drunk and mind-altered on cigarettes? It's not the same plane. I guess it comes down to the drug of choice thing - which is more like a drug-not-chosen-but-look-what-it-turned-out-to-be - in my case, it's alcohol.
I would have to say that my opinion on drinking non-alc beverages (with the traces of alcohol in them) is not 100%, it's only a precautious attitude. Not necessarily a fear about me that I am projecting, but it could be. In other words, I don't think someone is definitely in danger of relapse or is not really recovered because they consume those. There is a chance there that someone is in danger and that's why I ask the questions about why the aromas and flavo(u)rs are that great in and of themselves. If somebody really does like beer outside of the alcohol experience (and I was primarily a beer alcoholic), then that's just different from me.