This Was the Year Nicotine Made a Big Comeback

Ashwin Rodrigues
·5 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Illustration by Keir Novesky

To close out the year, GQ is revisiting the most fascinating ideas, trends, people, and projects of 2023. For all of our year-end coverage, click here.

In 2023, one of the world’s most popular and addictive stimulants kept popping up in convenience stores, health podcasts, courtrooms, and Instagram dumps. Nicotine was everywhere, in the form of pouches, gums, vapes—even old-fashioned cigarettes.

Health and nicotine would ordinarily seem to be an uneasy match, but this year, Dr. Peter Attia, doctor, podcaster, and longevity expert, came down on nicotine in a surprising way. On an appearance on Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom podcast, Attia, who’s previously touted cognitive benefits of nicotine on his own podcast, The Drive, said that he “loves nicotine,” that he’s “all about nicotine.” He explained that it’s not nicotine itself that’s the problem in things like vapes and cigarettes, but instead that the ingestion mechanism of these products. Smoking introduces toxic chemicals into your lungs, and the potential harms of vaping are still being studied. On the other hand, in the in the forms of gums, lozenges, and pouches, nicotine can be much safer.

On Huberman Lab, health and wellness expert Andrew Huberman also discussed the effects of nicotine on the brain and body, and how the delivery mechanism is often responsible for the negative health effects, not the nicotine itself. (He’s also provided guidance on how to quit.) And on the 2 Bears 1 Cave podcast hosted by comedians Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer, Huberman said, “I know a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist who chews Nicorette—he’s in his late 70’s—to maintain cognitive function.” (He did go on to note nicotine does increase blood pressure and vasoconstriction, and made it clear: “smoking, vaping, dipping, or snuffing? Not good for you.”)

Several brands have popped up to offer nicotine in these purportedly safer ingestion mechanisms, including Lucy, an Instagram-friendly nicotine gum brand co-founded by John Coogan, who previously co-founded Soylent. Rogue also offers gum as part of its “nicotine on-demand” products, while Blip offers a flashier version of the typically drab nicotine replacement therapy, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (“Blip gets you off,” reads its website.) Another company, aptly named Jones, also offers FDA-approved nicotine lozenges, a support app, as well as “Quitter” dad hats. (Elsewhere in smoking cessation, a company called Ripple took the nicotine out of vapes—this did not help the writer Annie Hamilton quit smoking, as she chronicled for GQ.)

The most visible of these new brands has been Zyn, which GQ covered in June and you've likely seen if you’ve peered inside a bar urinal recently. These discreet pouches don’t require the user to spit or maintain the conspicuous cheek bulge associated with cancer-causing dip, nor do they produce plumes of vapor, making them one of the most incognito ways to use nicotine, aside from a patch. This is part of the reason—along with the partial ban of chewing tobacco—that some MLB players made the switch this year.

Despite the nondescript nature of the pouch, there were avid consumers, “Zynfluencers,” willing to make it a core part of their personality on Instagram and TikTok, going so far as to produce a shrine to Zyn called a “Zynagogue” and a picture of the Pope holding up a Zyn can like a chalice to sell on Etsy. As of writing, there are dozens of sponsored search results for t-shirts under the search term “Osama Zyn Laden.”

Some of the more problematic nicotine delivery systems enjoyed a rebrand this year, too.

2023 saw the release of “Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul,” a docu-series based on a book by Time health and science journalist Jamie Ducharme. Juul has not ruled out a comeback, but the brand paid over $460 million dollars related to marketing the sleek USB drive-looking products to children and seems to have been left behind by the Elf Bar, which exists largely outside the legal system. According to the New York Times, this summer these round, colorful, disposable vapes, which are available in flavors like Blue Razz Ice and Miami Mint, became the most popular vape for middle and high-schoolers. In June, someone threw a Lemon-Mint Elf Bar at Drake at the Barclays Center. (He seems to prefer hookah.)

Even old-fashioned combustible cigarettes covered some traction. The hip brand Hestia made it into the Times in August, thanks in part to their work with what the story calls “cigfluencers.” The product is still just a cigarette, which, as the story notes, is still the leading cause of preventable death in this country. But Hestia has Instagrammy branding and a voicey Twitter account, and promises cigarettes with tobacco grown in soil that’s “happy and dynamic.” And like a true modern DTC brand, the cigarettes are available on a subscription basis.

Nicotine seems to have seeped into the culture this year as well. Lily-Rose Depp went viral for a post-Cannes smoke; Rosalia and Jeremey Allen White shared some tobacco-fuled PDA. A New York Times Magazine story in September noted that artists “can’t quit cigarettes,” claiming that “smoking is making an unlikely comeback in sculpture, design and even food.” As an example: one caterer offers fig plates shuffled with loosies, as part of a curated “grazing table,” for clients like Goop. And speaking of Goop—Gwenyth Paltrow made news in May after telling Harper’s Bazaar in a cover story that she smokes one American Spirit every Saturday night.

Paltrow didn't say whether she experienced any notroopic effects. But when the core ingredient is an addictive chemical, there’s more than one way to get people interested.

Originally Appeared on GQ

More Great Wellness Stories From GQ