That's a complete cop-out then.

He should have reasonably foreseen that that would be the exact effect.

Most normal people reading his piece would come away with the opposite conclusion.

The title alone: "On the benefits and lack of demerits of nicotine (research up to 2015)"

Is enough to make people go 'oh, that's ok then' without investing in trying to understand the subtlety of the argument made. You can add 500 references and spend 30K words but you've already lost by the first line of the article.

It would have taken 10 seconds to put a bit right at the top that says 'do not see this article as an excuse to go smoke or vape' or maybe even something harsher than that. With great power etc ...