Okay.....how about this discussion.
Positive effects of Nicotine
Anxiolysis - lowering of anxiety levels
Cognitive Enhancement - increasing/enhancing of the processes involved in thinking/knowing
Cerebrovasodilation - dilating of the blood vessels in the brain.
Neuroprotection - protecting the cells of the nervous system from certain types of degenerative disease. No one knows for sure quite why, but a history smoking seems to be protective against some of the neuronal loss in Alzheimer's disease
Analgesia - absence of pain while retaining the sense of touch, painlessness. One of the most promising uses of nicotinic drugs to date is as pain relievers.
Anti-psychotic - Literally, against psychosis (a type of insanity where the subject loses almost complete touch with reality). Interestingly, the correlation between a diagnosis of untreated psychosis and smoking is very high--it appears that somehow the psychotic person "knows" to self-medicate themselves.
Detrimental Effects of Nicotine
GI Distress - GI distress could be anything from an upset stomach to cramping of the bowels to constipation, etc. .
Hypothermia - lowering (hypo-) of body temperature (thermia) to below normal levels.
Emesis - Vomiting. An emetic is a substance which can induce vomiting, so nicotine is technically an emetic.
Hypertension - High blood pressure. Nicotine has an effect on the sympathetic nervous system (part of the nervous system involved in the classic "fight or flight" response), part of this effect is to cause the blood vessels within the body to constrict. Since, hopefully, the same amount of blood is still going through the body, this results in a net increase in the pressure within the system (think of what happens when you squeeze a garden hose). Why is it bad? The increase in pressure has to come from somewhere, and that's the heart which is trying to pump against this. Also, higher pressure can lead the "blowing up" of blood vessels, called aneurysms (think again of that garden hose and what happens if you hold it bent for too long).
Seizure - A sudden attack. Usually we associate seizures with conditions such as epilepsy. Seizures are caused by the loosening of the controls within the brain, allowing electrical activity to "run wild." Tremors and activities associated with seizures are the result of this uncontrolled electrical activity within the brain.
Respiratory Distress - As it sounds, causing distress within the respiratory system (the respiratory system includes the lungs and all the parts of the body related to the exchange of oxygen/carbon dioxide). Distress can come from problems caused within the lungs (nodules, degeneration) or by vasoconstriction (not enough time for the exchange to take place).
One effect that is not listed on this chart is that nicotine can stimulate the division of SCLCs (small cell lung carcinomas), a cancer cell line, by several hundred percent. This fact is interesting because it may explain why certain types of lung cancer grow so rapidly in smoking patients