- Republicans are up in arms about a hypothetical crack-down on Zyn, a brand of nicotine pouch.
- Beneath that outrage is a stranger, pro-nicotine subculture on the right.
- Many use nicotine as a stimulant, and Tucker Carlson claims the drug “frees your mind.”
Nicotine has suddenly found its way into the churn of America’s never-ending culture wars.
After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a federal probe into “Zyn” nicotine pouches last week, the GOP backlash was swift. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a “Zynsurrection.” Other GOP lawmakers, outing themselves as Zyn users, urged Schumer to “come and take it.” Among them was Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who told Business Insider that he took up the product “four or five years ago” as a safer alternative to the cancer-causing spitless tobacco he once used.
A talking point quickly materialized. “Unfortunately Chuck Schumer is more focused on Zyn Pouches than he is about Fentanyl pouring over our border,” wrote Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee.
But beneath the standard partisan messaging, or earnest harm-reduction advocacy of former tobacco users, is something decidedly less mainstream: a subculture on the right that doesn’t just tolerate nicotine use, but venerates it.
“It’s been a massive life-enhancer,” former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said of nicotine on an episode of the “Full Send” podcast last year. “It increases mental acuity, raises your testosterone level, it may be a prophylactic against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”
Peter Thiel, the right-wing tech billionaire who wields an outsize financial influence on the emerging “New Right,” told The Atlantic last year that he was considering getting into nicotine patches, a therapy typically used to ween people off of smoking, because the drug may be a “really good nootropic drug that raises your IQ 10 points.”
That’s not to say the outrage is all coming from this particular subset, especially when it comes to members of Congress. Burchett, for example, told BI he “had to Google it to find out what it is.” Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the youngest GOP member of the chamber and one who acknowledges being “plugged into a lot of weird right-wing subcultures,” also indicated little knowledge of the right-wing hankering for nicotine.
“My Senate office probably has the highest ratio of smokers of anybody in the US Senate,” Vance offered. “So there’s probably something to be said there.”
Rather, the Zyn craze is most visible among younger, more online, and predominantly male conservatives, including those who staff GOP congressional offices and campaigns.
A ‘pro-society’ drug
A variety of factors drive the proliferation of nicotine among the younger right-wing crowd. Demographically speaking, many young professional Republicans come from fraternity houses, sports teams, or other contexts where nicotine use is common. It’s also the case that Capitol Hill and campaigns tend to be high-pressure environments where consumption of caffeine and alcohol is known to be rampant.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
But just about everyone agrees that Carlson has been a singular force in mainstreaming Zyn, the Swedish-developed brand of nicotine pouches that have exploded in popularity over the last several years in the US.
“Zyn is pretty popular at least among Republican staff and seemingly some members, and Tucker Carlson’s use of it no doubt popularized it on the right,” said one GOP Hill staffer.
For these young conservatives, nicotine isn’t just a matter of habit or recreation (though that’s certainly part of it): It’s often seen as a way to boost productivity, whether it’s via pouches, vaping, or gum.
“I use it whenever I write material for my show, or right before I go on the air, or if I ever have to do a big podcast appearance,” said Saagar Enjeti, the cohost of the anti-establishment “Breaking Points” YouTube show. “It’s something that I use to enhance my work.”
“It gets the creative juices flowing during the day when I’m working and shitposting and whatnot,” said Greg Price, the communications director for the State Freedom Caucus Network and frequent viral clip-cutter on X, formerly known as Twitter.
When it comes to tobacco, the science clearly shows that it causes cancer. But there hasn’t been as much definitive research into the effects of non-tobacco nicotine on the body. In the absence of that, many on the pro-nicotine right look toward Andrew Huberman, a neuroscience professor at Stanford University, and Dr. Peter Attia. Both men have podcasts and have extolled the potential benefits of nicotine on the mind while also warning of its addictive properties.
As a stimulant, it’s not hard to see how nicotine could be a potential cognitive enhancer. But claims that the drug boosts testosterone rest on a shakier foundation, with studies showing mixed results. The scientific evidence on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is similarly weak. On the other hand, nicotine use has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease.
‘They hate nicotine. They love THC’
A darker layer in all of this is a Carlson-inspired critique of the left’s approach to drug regulation writ large, including the fentanyl crisis in the US and the ongoing push to legalize marijuana.
“They hate nicotine. They love THC,” Carlson said in a now-infamous monologue on his Fox News show last year, referring to the main psychoactive component in marijuana. “They are promoting weed to your children but they’re not letting you use tobacco or even non-tobacco nicotine delivery devices which don’t cause cancer. Why do they hate nicotine? Because nicotine frees your mind, and THC makes you compliant and passive. That’s why.”
Others take a similar, though less conspiratorial approach to the matter.
“Nicotine, when disaggregated from cigarettes, is a pro-society drug,” said Enjeti. “There’s currently a major institutional-left push to legalize drugs I would call anti-society.”
Enjeti also made something of a traditionalist argument, noting that high nicotine use correlated with a time that many consider to be a golden age in American innovation and growth.
“Some of the people that we respect most, including great thinkers, builders, and others who advanced society and really made us a great country, were all prolific nicotine users,” said Enjeti. “And then we all decided to shut that off.”
But beyond the confines of the right’s pro-nicotine subculture are more familiar critiques of what Schumer and other Democrats would like to do.
As Senate Republicans’ campaign arm argued, efforts to crack down on Zyn are part and parcel of an encroaching “nanny state.” Or as Tillis and other former tobacco-using lawmakers would argue, restricting tobacco alternatives cuts off a viable path toward harm reduction.
This is the chief argument that Gregory Conley, the director of external and legislative affairs for the American Vapor Manufacturers Association, makes when he engages with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
In Conley’s telling, Republicans have tended to be more receptive toward the industry because Democrats are “in many ways, still stuck in the early 1990s” in their prohibitive view of nicotine. He points to the fact that most House Democrats backed a bill in 2020 that would ban most flavored nicotine products.
“This should not be a right-wing issue,” said Conley. “The academics in the US who are the leading voices saying that tobacco harm reduction should be encouraged are mostly all liberal Democrats.”
But even Conley, a literal lobbyist for the vaping industry, is not completely on board with the mind-enhancement arguments that many on the right are prone to make.
“We’re aware that is cited as a reason for many people, but we need more literature,” said Conley, offering: “Many adults, including myself, find that nicotine aids in their concentration.”
