37 Comments

The impetus for restrictions on tobacco consumption is that fact that tobacco products have been shown to cause cancer, which leads to increased healthcare spending and distributed societal effects. That's reasonable, in my opinion. Nicotine may be addictive, but it is NOT the cancer-causing agent in tobacco. Caffeine is also addictive and non-cancer-causing. So does this mean that Schumer is coming after coffee next? All because he thinks someone who isn't him is making money? If he makes a move to ban coffee, maybe that'll finally convince people to throw him the hell out of office.

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Luke is 1000% correct!! When I wanted to quit chewing tobacco, my doctor recommended a Zyn-like nicotine pouch. I asked about the risks of nicotine and he and his colleagues assured me that nicotine was very similar to caffeine (aka harmless.) Pouches and gum are used to get people off of tobacco! Zyn is not a gateway to chewing and smoking…

Doesn’t Congress have enough actual problems to work on rather than making up paranoid nanny state bs??

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Correlation is not causation.

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Amen…nicotine, alcohol, sex and gambling…good luck getting rid of those…time bring back the term “nanny state”…and I should add I am in recovery so suffice it to say I have a full informed view of addiction.

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I'm reminded of the Bush Sr line about how conservatives don't lay awake at night worrying someone is having a good time. Schumer is a vulture. I don't understand why lefties don't get the fact that NO ONE leaves this planet alive.

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You know the old Mencken quote about Puritans... "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

It seems you could replace Puritan with these modern scolds - the Democrats and the young constituency they cultivate with a fervor far past the reach of a nicotine fix. Greta Thunberg is their patron saint. I'm only surprised that she isn't from Berkeley rather than Sweden.

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Apr 17·edited Apr 17

Yep we all caught "death" the day we were born. The universal chronic illness.

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founding

Perhaps I can add a reasonable less partisan take to the mix. Prohibition doesn’t work. Outlaw Zyn, then we have a Zyn black market. Amazing. Prohibition should be saved for the worst of the worst like Heroin where its live destroying and possibly immediately fatal.

Nicotine overdose deaths are basically nonexistent.

I think its also a knee jerk reaction against safetyism. Its a funny article because dislike for safetyism is partially why I enjoy cigars or the occasional cigarette when i’m hunting or doing trail work. Camel Turkish Royals are my favorite cigarettes. Kentucky Fire Cured Cigars from Drew Estates are my favorite cigars. I grew up being told the lie that smoking a single cigarette meant addiction. Not true.

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Fishing and hunting with something burning is never easy. I chew wretched cigar butts. This may be a big improvement.

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The biggest killer in our society is our diet. And nobody is restricting fast food joints or added sugars.

It is fascinating what is normalized as a right in this country and what the government seeks to restrict. My body, my choice, right? Or I guess that only applies to…..certain things.

Maybe big tobacco should coin a catchy slogan (akin to “reproductive rights”). All hail the pharmaceutical conglomerate and lobby groups.

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A quiet alternative to common sense has emerged in cities and towns across the United States. It is called the Democratic Party. Chuck Schumer is one of them. Fuck Chuck.

To paraphrase the Muslim community of Dearborn Michigan...

Death to the Democratic Party of America!

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Fascinating. I had never even heard of this product.

Naturally Phillip Morris is behind this. When Zyn becomes unavailable, the nicotine addicts will have no choice but to resort to tobacco use.

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Phillip Morris secretly lobbying the government to ban their own wildly successful product in an attempt to force addicts to smoke cigarettes is a great conspiracy theory.

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So tired of outlawing things in the name of kids. The FDA itself admits that only 1.5% of high schoolers and middle schoolers admit to using Zyn in the past year. (well below the 10% that used vapes) There is no problem here, and we already have laws to prevent kids from doing nicotine. Surely there are bigger problems to focus on.

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I take offense to that kid’s comment about vapes. My vape is neither clunky nor purple.🤣

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I've quit and restarted nicotine at least a dozen times and the worst withdrawal symptom is definitely the absent minded lack of focus. I don't think i buy that nicotine increases IQ but I totally buy that withdrawal decreases it.

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The FDA continues to apply the same rules to nicotine pouches and heated/electronic delivery devices as they do burning, inhaled tobacco products. This despite the obviously different effects on the lungs. Oh, and don’t even ask about legalized marijuana.

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I am buying it today! Great ad campaign here for Zyn. Hope they paid you for it. How to get nicotine in a relatively safe way without pissing off my wife and kids! I loved nicotine gum but end up looking like some human ruminant. I am buying a crate full before the weenies outlaw it.

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I'm confused about everything here! The politicalization of this?? Ignoring Skoal bandits which have been around for ages??

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“We need nicotine to cope with our jobs because they are extremely stressful,”

Eat real food. Drink lots of water. Move your body. Get sufficient sleep.

You will find your "need" to put crap in your body magically trickling away.

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Not at all an advocate for government intervention, but why is it that there are so many poisons being introduced to society? OxyContin, fentanyl, meth, growth hormones in our meat, pesticides on our vegetables, ethanol in a multitude of forms, medications with adverse effects and weak evidence for their purported benefits, the list is endless. Combine that with a healthcare system that fails to properly treat or prevent most chronic diseases and yet is fabulously expensive. I really and truly hope, for the love of humanity, that people take care of themselves and guard their health.

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For God’s sake, if Schumer, Vic, and Business Insider are against it, it must be a good thing. Better we regulate those three losers.

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One of the important caveats to this debate is that Schumer and Co. seem to be harping on Zyn specifically, as a lead in and entry way to other brands of nicotine pouches, of which there are many.

I think part of this has to do with the Tobacco lobby. Part of this has to do with taking aim at the most popular brand in order to make a larger move and point.

But there’s a more subtle reason too. Tucker openly uses Zyn, talks about it on his platform. This seems like a petty and foolish way to pick a fight with one of the nation’s most popular conservative hosts.

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And part of it may have to do with insider trading that is de rigueur for members of congress

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