Fifty years ago, it was common to see students smoking and sharing cigarettes in school, the parking lot, parties or in any other social settings. Today, smoking has fallen out of style — students half a century ago lived on the tail end of the age of widespread smoking, as eye-opening articles such as the Surgeon General’s 1964 report linked cigarettes directly to an early onset of lung cancer and heart disease. According to the CDC, the percentage of adult smoking in the U.S. between 1965 and 2019 fell from 42 percent to 14.2 percent. But even as cigarettes disappear, nicotine has found a way to stay around.
The latest trend in the nicotine industry has spread like wildfire throughout the United States: oral nicotine pouches, meant to be placed between the gum and upper lip. One of the most popular brands of these pouches is Zyn. Though marketed exclusively for ages 21 and up, Zyn has made its way into the hands of teenagers, with around 400,000 adolescents nationwide using nicotine patches, according to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey.
Upper School Counselor Dr. Mary Bonsu is no stranger to nicotine products and their effects on teens and young adults. As a member of the Marksmen Wellness Center Team, Bonsu has dealt with students struggling with nicotine addictions in the past, especially from vapes, and has educated students on such products through Health and Wellness classes.
“It’s habit forming,” Bonsu said. “The brain starts rewarding the person for using nicotine, and the more the reward systems are strengthened and the brain structures that are responsible for cognition, memory and emotion are damaged, the more easily people can form a dependence on it.”

Zyn, given its more potent and immediate delivery of nicotine due to direct contact with capillaries and ease of use and concealment, can more easily lead to a nicotine addiction.
“It’s impacting memory and cognition, everything that you need to be able to organize yourself and function well,” Bonsu said. “Memory is a big part of your learning, and so is processing information. If all those things are compromised, you’re not going to meet your goals.”
Part of the popularity of Zyn can be attributed to the apparent lack of visible harm to the body compared to other forms of nicotine products such as vapes and tobacco.
“Most people are going to go, ‘It’s just nicotine. It’s not hurting my lungs, right?’ Well, we can show you damaged lungs,” Bonsu said. “But unless we put you in a functional MRI, and then give you tasks and show you how things are lighting up and how they’re probably not lighting up if you’re addicted to something, it doesn’t really hit home.”
Additionally, unlike those other forms of nicotine, Zyns are discreet and easy to conceal. Designed to fit within the lip, Zyn pouches can be difficult for police to detect.
“I think the size of the pouch definitely reduces the stigma,” a Zyn user who requested anonymity said. “When you buy one and walk back to your car, it’s much harder to notice than, for example, a beer bottle.”
Although the physical effects of nicotine may not be as visible as a blackened lung, they are still just as prevalent.
“The main factor that made me quit was that it suppresses your appetite, and I was barely eating at all,” the Zyn user said. “It was very hard to sustain myself.”
Another reason nicotine is so attractive to young people is because Zyns are not perceived with the same distaste in society as other substances might be, and certain peole believe they can help them feel accepted in social settings.
“Zyns are way cooler than vaping,” another user who requested anonymity said. “I started using Zyns last summer; I would say it was my peers who got me into it, but it wasn’t peer pressure. It was a personal choice. Socially, I would say, there’s an enticing benefit—it’s like evidence that I’m chill.”
While some may be unaware, many Zyn users realize how damaging their addictions can be, yet they consciously choose to continue because of how others perceive them.
“The first thing one of my friends, whenever they would come in town, would ask me was, ‘Do you have any nicotine?’” the user said. “If the answer was yes, their response was, ‘I need some right now,’ and if the answer was no, it was, ‘Can you take me and get some?’ They were pleading.”
Even Zyn users who actively want to quit are thrown into an unhealthy loop of leaving and coming back.
“There’s so many times I’ve seen someone say, ‘I’m quitting, I’m throwing it away, I’m flushing it down the toilet,’” the user said. “And then, two days later, it’s back. The part about quitting is that if you quit for a while and then you start again, it feels way better. It encourages a cycle.”
And for every student that overcomes their addiction to nicotine, another always seems to take their place.
Zyns and other oral pouches have reached their peak in popularity—according to another recent evaluation by the National Youth Tobacco Survey, total usage of tobacco products among students has dropped significantly in recent years. As more and more people quit, the hard reality has become clear: there is a path for those struggling to overcome addiction, though the journey may not be easy.
“It’s easy to just pop one in when I’m studying or just chilling,” the user said. “I like the buzz, and they just really help me focus. I quit them once, but I don’t really feel like quitting them again.”