COLUMBUS, Ohio — Many college students are experimenting with nicotine pouches, which could lead to an increase in young people dependent on the highly addictive chemical, new research suggests.
More than 15% of undergraduates and more than 11% of graduate students told a research team from The Ohio State University that they had ever tried a nicotine pouch. And about 3% of the students said they use the pouches at least monthly.
Certain groups, including fraternity members, reported much higher rates – more than 41% of students in a fraternity said they’d tried a pouch such as Zyn.
The study included more than 1,400 undergraduate and graduate students at Ohio State, who were surveyed in spring 2025.
“Many students reported using the pouches while socializing at parties and while drinking — ‘I like the buzz’ was the most commonly cited reason for using them,” said lead author Megan Roberts, an associate professor in Ohio State’s College of Public Health.
The study appears in the Journal of American College Health.
Pouch use is much less obvious than other forms of nicotine use, including vapes, cigarettes and chewing tobacco. The pouches are small, often mint or fruit flavored, and contain no tobacco leaf. Users typically place them between their lip and gums.
Nicotine pouches can increase heart rate and blood pressure and cause gum irritation, dry mouth and potential oral health issues. But because pouches are a relatively new product, little is known about other potential health harms, Roberts said.
One concern she and her fellow researchers have: Pouches have the potential to ease the path to nicotine addiction by providing an alternative that can be used covertly in places where smoking isn’t permitted, such as classrooms and airplanes, Roberts said.
“It seems to have been rapidly incorporated into fraternity life. Part of this is college culture, and part of this may be that some social media influencers have promoted pouch use as a stimulant to boost energy for workouts, including weightlifting,” Roberts said.
“I don’t think any legitimate health coach is going to recommend using Zyn before going to the gym,” she said.
While the pouches don’t pose a direct threat to other people in the vicinity (there’s no secondhand smoke or vape byproduct to consider), pouches do create litter and threaten water safety when discarded improperly, Roberts said.
Other researchers who worked on the study, all from Ohio State, are Amy Ferketich, Brittney Keller-Hamilton and Tong Lin.
The research was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
