David Gomez, a school resource officer for the Boise County Sheriff’s Office in Idaho, started noticing caffeine pouches last spring. Students were using the pillow-shaped pouches, which can contain more than 200 milligrams of caffeine, alongside nicotine pouches like Zyn.
They’ll use them either as a disguise for nicotine pouch usage — caffeine and nicotine pouches often look virtually identical — or a complement to it, Gomez said.
“They’ll use the Zyn pouches that they put in their lip, and then they’ll take a caffeine pouch,” he added. “They don’t care what it is they’re putting in their lip.”
The use of caffeine pouches among teens is still relatively rare. But some experts and educators have concerns that that could soon change. Teen-friendly marketing of these products is spreading on social media. And Richard Mumby, the marketing executive who helped launch the e-cigarette Juul, which was widely blamed…
