Global Push to Ban Nicotine as Marijuana and Psychedelics Praised
Nicotine, an alkaloid that naturally occurs in nightshade plants, is the latest target in an ongoing legislative and regulatory battle, with leaders worldwide working toward an outright ban on the substance. Simultaneously, marijuana and psychedelic substances are being encouraged and deregulated at a rapid pace.
While research continues to come out, nicotine has been found to potentially aid in recovery from Covid-19, serve as an anti-inflammatory agent, boost cognition, and even prevent Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. So, why the crackdown?
Elites Suppressing Nicotine
In January 2025, in the 11th hour of Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration pushed hard to essentially begin the death of nicotine through FDA regulations. The Biden-era rule sought to establish a “maximum nicotine level” in tobacco products. In a press release accompanying the clampdown, the FDA revealed that they would “cap the nicotine level at 0.7 milligrams per gram of tobacco in cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products.”
While the FDA regulation would not touch on non-tobacco products containing nicotine, such as nicotine gum, patches, or pouches, Democrats have been pushing for years to restrain the sale of non-tobacco nicotine products, mainly nicotine pouches — a small pouch of flavored nicotine placed between the gums.
“It’s a pouch packed with problems — high levels of nicotine,” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in January of 2024 at a press conference targeting the pouches and nicotine at large. Schumer called on the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration to investigate nicotine companies for “for concerns relating to marketing and health effects.” They want to wage war on nicotine.
Democratic governors are hopping on the bandwagon, too. In New York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul recently unveiled her 2027 proposed budget, which included a 75-percent tax on non-tobacco nicotine products. “The Executive Budget defines alternative nicotine products and broadens the tobacco products definition to include them, bringing these products under the State’s existing 75 percent wholesale tax,” the budget proposal states.
The reason for the regulations is ostensibly to protect children. New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller stated, “We have high taxes to create a barrier to entry for children. That’s always been a core rationale for having some of the highest taxes on these products in the country.”
UK: Banning Tobacco for Everyone Born After 2008
But the war on nicotine and tobacco is not just happening in America. It is happening in England, too. This week, both houses of Parliament agreed to a final draft of legislation that would literally ban anyone born after January 1, 2009 from buying tobacco for the rest of their life. The U.K’.s health minister, Baroness Merron, commented that “It is, in fact, the biggest public health intervention in a generation and I can assure all noble Lords it will save lives.”
New Zealand also attempted a smoking ban in 2022, but quickly reversed it upon the election of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who cited concerns about the rise of black market sales and the impact on the economy. Australia has also tightened the bolts on nicotine use, requiring a prescription to use certain nicotine products.
World Health Organization Chimes In
The World Health Organization (WHO), a key perpetrator of the Covid-19 lockdowns, social distancing, masking, and mass vaccination, has been a relentless agitator in the war against nicotine since 1988, when it launched “World No Tobacco Day.” Last year, the WHO — the health arm of the globalist United Nations — focused on non-tobacco products in its crusade to stop nicotine.
“Companies are aggressively marketing new and emerging nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and synthetic nicotine devices — often disguised as ‘innovation’ — to sustain addiction and recruit new users,” they said in an announcement. “These strategies threaten to reverse hard-won gains in tobacco control and public health.”
Calling on governments around the world, the WHO demanded that policymakers strengthen regulation and close policy gaps to restrict usage. The U.K.’s ban falls in line perfectly with the agenda.
Marijuana and Psychedelics Surge
Despite the consistent global push to ban and regulate nicotine, marijuana and psychedelic drugs are being deregulated and are increasingly accessible. The leaders behind legalizing, deregulating, and even praising marijuana are often the same actors pushing anti-nicotine policies. For example, Senator Chuck Schumer in 2022 co-sponsored the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which would “decriminalize and deschedule cannabis” while providing expungement of prior marijuana-related offenses.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul — who wants to impose a 75 percent nicotine tax — is also helping the marijuana industry. Earlier this year, she announced a plan to create a “Center for Excellence for Cannabis Care and Health Equity” that would increase access to medical marijuana for minorities.
Last week, President Trump signed an executive order accelerating access to psychedelic drugs at the behest of known pot smoker Joe Rogan. The order states that “[T]he Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to specific psychedelic drugs, and there are numerous products currently in the clinical trial pipeline for review of safety and efficacy.”
The move comes after Trump signed an executive order in December 2025, ordering the attorney general to lower marijuana from a Schedule I substance (not accepted for medical use) to a Schedule III (accepted for medical uses). The order also called for further research to more broadly use THC and CBD for common everyday ailments.
This week, acting AG Todd Blanche finished the job ordering the rescheduling of marijuana to a Schedule III substance.
Marijuana use can be extremely harmful. Studies show direct links between marijuana use and increased miscarriages and lower fertility rates. Boston University School of Public Health researcher Alyssa Harlow uncovered that for “men who use marijuana one or more times a week, their partner is twice as likely to miscarry than the partners of men who use marijuana less than once a week or not at all.”
Harvard Medical School has also published materials linking marijuana use to cognitive decline.
Nicotine: What It Is and Isn’t
As an alkaloid, nicotine is occurs in the nightshade plant family, most notably in tobacco leaves, but also in significantly smaller quantities in crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants.
Of course, nicotine is mainly known for its use in cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco, which are known to cause a multitude of ailments, mainly cancer. However, it is not the nicotine that serves as the carcinogenic (cancerous) agent. In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the U.S. Surgeon General do not classify nicotine as a carcinogen. Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is even on the record claiming it is not carcinogenic.
Speaking to nicotine’s supposed addictive qualities, in 1994, seven CEOs from the top tobacco companies testified before Congress — under penalty of perjury — and were asked by Representative Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) if they believed that nicotine was an addictive substance. All seven firmly answered that they believed it was not. Two years later, all seven were under federal investigation for lying under oath, but no evidence was found to prove them guilty.
Potential Benefits of Nicotine
For decades, studies have suggested that nicotine, when properly consumed, can serve as an anti-inflammatory agent, prevent Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and boost cognition. In a 1991 paper, Murray Elias Jarvik, a neuroscientist and the co-developer of the nicotine patch, discovered a plethora of benefits from nicotine use.
“Nicotine in tobacco brings illness and death to millions of people,” the paper states. “Yet nicotine in its pure form has the potential to be a valuable pharmaceutical agent.” By binding to the “cholinergic nicotinic gating site on cationic ion channels in receptors throughout the body,” nicotine can stimulate the release of various neurotransmitters. Jarvik posited that regular nicotine use via non-smoking methods may result in protection against Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and sleep apnea.
Regarding cognition and anti-inflammatory benefits, a 2024 paper available in the National Library of Medicine stated that “recent research has revealed its [nicotine’s] broader cognitive-enhancing and anti-inflammatory properties, suggesting its potential therapeutic applications in several conditions.”
Another study from 2023 found that “using nicotine patches to combat long-haul Covid seems far superior to the time-consuming, often underwhelming or disappointing, costly and complex rehabilitation measures currently available to these patients.”
RFK, Jr., Tucker Carlson, and the Rising Popularity of Nicotine
Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a nicotine pouch user, has hinted at the benefits of nicotine when taken properly. Addressing the harms surrounding the substance, he said, “Nicotine itself does not cause cancer. There is no evidence that it’s carcinogenic,” adding that “the thing we really want to get away from is cigarettes.”
Indeed, cigarettes and chewing tobacco can cause cancer, mainly due to combustion and the countless added pyrazines. Smoking and the use of chewing tobacco are rightfully discouraged. However, nicotine consumed in a purer form (nicotine pouches or patches) could provide notable benefits.
So why the crackdown on nicotine? Many opinion molders have weighed in, including Tucker Carlson, who believes in nicotine so much that he launched his own nicotine pouch company called ALP.
While speaking in Australia last year, Carlson said, “[Nicotine] has the byproduct of raising testosterone levels and making people a little harder to command. That’s a massive threat.” He added, “I would highly recommend [nicotine] to every person in this room; it is a life-enhancing, God-given chemical. That’s just my view.”
Contrasting the continual praise and deregulation of marijuana and the oppression of nicotine, conservative pundit Michael Knowles noted, “[Marijuana] makes you lazy, dumb, and passive,” which is why leftists want it to be used by the masses, he argued. Nicotine, on the other hand, “makes you more alert; it makes you think more quickly and clearly…. It’s not a party drug.”
Ultimately, the jury is still out regarding the specific risks and benefits of nicotine, and many analysts and researchers are advocating for more studies. But if history is any indicator of the future, Big Pharma and the global elite have a pattern of attacking cheap, useful treatments — such as the Nobel Prize-winning drug ivermectin during Covid-19 — while simultaneously promoting solutions that contribute to the very issues they claim to combat.
