For the unaware, there is a new nicotine trend sweeping the nation decades after Joe Camel first tried to convince Americans that smoking was cool.
Nicotine pouches have become increasingly popular in recent years, preserving the most desired part of smoking tobacco (the buzz of a nicotine high) without actually inhaling smoke.
In fact, Men’s Health describes the pouch trend as “nicotine’s rebrand from a public health threat to a performance tool.”
Some people — like former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson — swear by these pouches.
“He is a nicotine evangelist, if not the nicotine evangelist, and over the past five years, he sort of became synonymous with nicotine pouches,” Men’s Health wrote of Carlson.
“I love the taste,” Carlson told Men’s Health of nicotine pouches. “I love the convenience. And above all, I loved the full nicotine saturation of it. Maybe for the first time in 25 years, I felt like, oh, I have enough nicotine. And you can use it all day, from the second you wake up until the second you fall asleep. And I do.”
When the Men’s Health writer told Carlson that it sounded like he was addicted, the former newscaster’s response effectively admitted to it.
“Am I addicted? Yeah, in the same sense I’m addicted to eating or breathing or sex,” Carlson retorted. “I could stop doing it, but the benefits of doing it far outweigh the downsides. I haven’t seen a downside.”
There’s so much upside to these nicotine pouches that Carlson started his own brand of the product, looking to challenge the undisputed current king of nicotine pouches, Zyn.
That led Carlson to found ALP, a company that boasts “we love nicotine pouches, and we’re here to share that love” on its mission page.
But there’s a downside.
Due in no small part to the nicotine product’s growing popularity, there is legitimate demand for it — and illegitimate demand as well, apparently.
According to the New York Post, Carlson suffered a sizable loss last week when “a multimillion-dollar load of his ALP nicotine pouches vanished in a hijacking in Los Angeles.”
The truck that was hijacked was apparently en route to a Kentucky warehouse with millions of pouches across approximately 378,000 tins onboard.
It appears that the driver may have faked his credentials to gain access to the truck full of ALP pouches, though the incident is still under investigation.
But while that investigation proceeds, Carlson’s ALP company is taking a proactive approach to securing justice.
The ALP Heist: What Happened
$100,000 reward, read below👇
A truck carrying millions worth of ALP nicotine pouches has vanished while travelling from California to Kentucky.
The shipment, which contained around 378,000 tins of ALP’s new limited “Drifters” line, was picked up… pic.twitter.com/il0A6U5lzs
— Alp Pouch (@alppouch) March 4, 2026
“ALP is launching a national manhunt offering a $100,000 reward for credible information that leads to the recovery of the stolen shipment or the conviction of those responsible,” the company posted to X on Wednesday.
The company added, “Contact [email protected] or local authorities with any information.”
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