Niacin is a vitamin in small doses. But in the high doses that are required to help lower cholesterol, it is definitely a drug.
Yes, aspirin is one way to reduce the flush of the niacin. Taking an aspirin 30 minutes before the niacin is one of the recommendations on the Endurance Products website (that's the company that sells the brand of niacin I take.) Their other recommendations to reduce flushing are to take the niacin with meals and to start with a smaller dose and build up to the dose you need gradually. With the sustained release, I didn't bother with the aspirin, but started with 250 mg dose daily taken with a meal. I still had minor flushing the first week, but it went away. Some people would then increase dose, but I stayed on just the 250 mg for three months, then had a liver enzyme test and blood lipid test to see where I was at. Even the 250 mg gave me some cholesterol and triglyceride lowering. I think the recommendations the doctor had were to have liver enzyme tests every three months after increasing the dose. I got good results, with TC down to 190, at 750 mg divided dose, but then fell off the bandwagon on a careful diet, so the doctor wanted me to up that to 1000 mg daily. I only did that for about a week before I had unrelated health problems (IBS) which totally messed up my diet and medications. I've only recently got the IBS under pretty good control, so will soon have another test to see what my new lipid starting point is.
Most people require 1000 to 2000 niacin for proper lipid control, but if you can behave yourself on diet and get by with a lower dose, that means a lower chance of liver enzymes getting messed up.
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