I smoked a pipe for more than 25 years and generally did not inhale. Some smoke does get into your lungs, and bronchi, however. And, up through your nose into your sinuses. When you suck the air and smoke through a pip stem, you hold it in your mouth, and then exhale it. Its the taste and the smell of the tobacco which is the "joy " of smoking pipes, and not the nicotene high you could get if you inhaled.
I smoked a tobacco that was a combination of Golden, or " Virginia" Canvendish, Black Cavendish, and a touch of burley, with the two Cavendish tobaccos soaked in a vanilla solution and dried before cutting and mixing. It is called Sable Blend, because it is such a smooth tasting smoke, and even non-smokers like the smell of the vanilla flavoring. I liked it because, unlike most all aromatic blends, Sable did not burn the tongue.
If you are going to smoke pipes, you need plenty of them. Once smoke, the pipe needs to be cleaned, and then allowed to dry out for a day before it can be smoked again. If you don't rotate pipes, you get a mouthful of nicotine, and TARS, which taste very bitter. This is also the " juice " that some smokers end up sucking up through the pipe stem, and then spitting out!
This is why many pipe smokers reserve this pastime for their homes, where they maintain a pipe rack, full of pipes, the tobacco of choice, and pipe cleaners and tools needed to keep their pipes in top condition. Don't hestitate to smoke a " Kentucky Meershaum", or a corncob pipe. They don't last very long before drying out, but they are a good smoke, and they are very cheap to buy, and even cheaper to make. Briar pipes come in all price ranges, and a good bet is to find a pipe shop that sells used pipes. These are cleaned, and reconditioned, and typically will have new stems put in them. ( Don't buy someone's old stem!) The Briar, and the name of the maker is what puts the value to the pipe, not the stem. I have a Briar Pipe I bought back in 1972 for the then princely sum of $35.00. Today, its worth 20 times that, and its still my favoite pipe to smoke. I also have a Calabash/meershaum Pipe, and that is also a good smoke, but heavy, clumbsy, and poorly balanced. You have to be sitting down to smoke it.
Tamping tobacco into a pipe is almost an artform. Done properly, the tobacco will stay lit and burn from the top to the bottom, outdoors, without going out. Done wrong, and the smoker is constantly re-lighting his pipe, and has the bottom third of his tobaccco turn into a gooey mess, that is thrown away. If he is interested, I can instruct your friend on the proper method to pack and "tamp" tobacco in a pipe. Send me a PT.