My bf has started taking medications to reduce/eliminate nicotine cravings, and says the only time now he feels like smoking is when he drinks.

As  you say, the electronic cigarette is non-lethal (well, so far as we know but the fact that it isn't easily available in Canada makes me wonder what isn't being said) and a better alternative to real cigarettes.

Re subsituting similar behaviours...I quit cold turkey with no medications to help me through the early days and what helped me was "pretend smoking" of cinammon sticks and similar cigarette shaped devices. I say if whatever your bf is doing to not smoke is helping him in the early days then leave him to it.

Drinking is, apparently, a huge trigger for quitters in the early stages. Can you persuade your bf to give up his beer until he has worked out how to deal with the behaviours associated with that routine?

Thanks--that is interesting to know you also used a "pretend smoke" and didn't feel the need after the early days.  It is early days still, I think.  Drinking, and his workplace, which has a lot of smokers at it, are the two triggers.  I don't know if I can persuade him to give up the beer entirely, as that is his de-stressor after a hard week of labour, and he drinks in moderation, but I think it is worth mentioning that it might help to break the habit better.

I wanted to add that in the early days I avoided coffee (huge trigger for me) and stayed away from places which I associated with smoking. I didn't really have to stay away from smokers because I think I was the only one left in my groups of friends who smoked.

Gradually, I was able to drink a cup of coffee without feeling any kind of craving for a cigarette...and boy! does the coffee ever taste good!!! Interestingly, I drink much less coffee now...some days, none at all.

I'd let your bf "feel his way" through this process. Quitting nicotine is like quitting any other addiction. I didn't even want to talk about it much in the early days mainly because talking about my quit made me think about cigarettes! But! I can do it now!

and that's what I remembered, that you have a much better chance at success if you stay away from activities that are linked to the behaviour.  That's why I wondered about the 'fake' cigarette, and the drinking.