As the nicotine market continues to spawn gadgets and gizmos to help you puff, chew, or lick fruit-flavored nicotine, your local 7-Eleven or smoke shop may be stuffed with candy-colored products.
Not on shelves lately? Zyn.
They’re smokeless, tobacco-free nicotine pouches that are sold in breath mint-shaped tins, and they’re a huge hit. Tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) reports they sold 1.2 billion tins last year.
Megan Simpson, who manages LA Vape and Smoke Shop in Mar Vista, says her store has been 100% out of Zyns for weeks. “Cannot get them at all — I wish I could. Because I have regular customers who come in here every day to check and see if I have them.”
One possible reason for the shortage: Philip Morris International halted all official online sales of the product in June. That was after the Washington, D.C. attorney general began demanding information about Zyn’s compliance with a local ban on flavored nicotine.
This smoke shop in West LA would sell you Zyns — if they had any. Photo by Kelsey Ngante/KCRW.
Here in LA, much wilder rumors about the shortage are flying.
“People keep asking me questions, and I don’t know what to tell them,” laments Simpson. “People are hearing that the factory burned down, somebody blew it up, that they’re in a lawsuit with the government, that they’re in another lawsuit.”
Despite the company’s legal troubles, PMI claims that the current shortage is strictly because demand has outstripped supply.
Zyns have been on the market for over 10 years, but only recently caught on as a phenomenon. Ollie Ganz, who studies tobacco marketing at Rutgers University, says a big part of that is social media presence.
“There’s been this momentum on social media like TikTok and other platforms where a lot of people, particularly young males, are really promoting these products,” says Ganz.
In one recent example on content channel Nelkfilmz, a team of about a dozen young, male “Zynfluencers” use a helicopter to give conservative commentator Tucker Carlson “the world’s largest Zyn container.” The video has almost half a billion likes on Instagram.
From a physical wellness standpoint, says public health professor Lynn Kozlowsi of the University at Buffalo, it makes sense to turn to Zyn over smoking.
“The majority of risks from smoking come from lung diseases, lung cancer, or chronic obstructive lung disease,” Kozlowski explains. Some of the effects of nicotine pouches like Zyn include gum damage, oral irritation, addiction, and the potential for cardiovascular issues. But, he says, these risks pale in comparison to the laundry list of health effects from traditional cigarettes.
“Something like a nicotine pouch doesn’t get stuff in your lungs. … A lot of people are turning to nicotine pouches because they believe – and I think it’s correct – that they’re lower in risk,” says Kozlowski.
On a recent weekday evening, Zyn users at the trendy Silverlake bar 4100 had different reasons for their attraction to the product: the nicotine buzz and appetite suppression.
LA native Dylan Moses, 26, adds that Zyn’s rewards program is part of the draw for him and his coworkers. It allows users to scan their purchased tins to redeem points, and they can win gift cards, iPads, air fryers, designer merchandise, and more.
“Zyns have been very fun,” he says. “We’d all collect our tins and scan them for points and get t-shirts and build pyramids out of the tins. Now we have a Zyn jar at work, which we’re very strict about because of the shortage.”
The low supply has put a halt on college student Alyssa Rodriguez’s journey towards a big prize.
Empty tins collected by Zyn user Alyssa Rodriguez in hopes of winning a big prize from Zyn rewards. Photo by Alyssa Rodriguez.
“I don’t have many designer bags, but they have a designer bag on there. It’s like 10,000 points. Each can is 15 points per. It’s gonna take me a while to get there,” Rodriguez laughs.
Beyond just putting a halt to her designer dreams, Rodriguez says the Zyn shortage has heightened the effects of her nicotine withdrawal.
“You get mad, you get very short-tempered, anxious and jittery. Having to be off Zyns specifically and switch to other things is frustrating,” says Rodriguez.
Right now there’s only one factory in the U.S. producing Zyns. Last month, Philip Morris announced plans to open a new $600 million production facility next year.