Patches do nothing -- I've quit several times for weeks at a time. If you've tapered down to half a pack of ultra light's before you quit, you're really just dealing with the twitchies of not having those regular breaks.
Never really have found anything that substitutes for the idle-time pause of a smoke.
Try it at work with a "regular" job. If you want to go grab a coffee, you'll get bitched at that it's not coffee break. But if you go for a smoke, everyone understands nic fits and off you go without complaint.
Hell, what got me hooked in the first place was a large employer who mandated that we couldn't take a coffee break except at 10 and 3, but which had set up smoke areas. If you took a coffee down to the smoke area, you got your break without harassment. Then management clued in, and started making sure everyone in the break area was smoking. The fact that we worked 45-55 hour weeks for 40 hours pay was irrelevant to them.
Too bad NorTel's stock is tanked -- betcha I coulda made good in a lawsuit.