John Brolin has revealed the extent of his nicotine addiction, saying that he sleeps with nicotine pouches in his mouth.
The 56-year-old Goonies actor said he uses the pouches constantly after giving up chewing tobacco and nicotine lozenges.
Speaking on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Brolin said he uses the pouches 24 hours a day, and that his wife hears him chewing during the night.
“My wife would hear this in the middle of the night,” Brolin said, imitating the sound of chewing. “I don’t even know I’m doing it, I’m asleep. I have a pouch in my lip, and I’m not f***ing lying, 24 hours a day.”
Brolin, who has shared his experiences of addiction in his new memoir, From Under the Truck, said he switched to using pouches after experiencing bad side effects with nicotine lozenges.
“They taste like gasoline and they got a punch to them,” he said of the lozenges. “But I used to keep them up by my between my gum and my tooth line. I got seven cavities.”
Brolin said that he keeps his pouches “all over the house” but is concerned about his young children touching them.
“I’ve started taking them out and putting them on the bedside table,” Brolin said, adding that he was careful about the pouches being found by his six and three-year-old children, whom he shares with his wife Kathryn Boyd.
“If [my daughter] puts it in her mouth, she’s gonna get sick. And instead of stopping, I try and teach them, ‘Don’t do that.’”
The actor also shares his two eldest children, Trevor Mansur, 36, and Eden, 29, with his ex-wife Alice Adair.
Brolin explained that his reliance on nicotine has led to him trying some intense strains of pouches while abroad in the Middle East, which essentially gave him short-term stomach problems.
“We’re in Jordan. And [this guy] comes up to me, and he says, ‘I have some.’ And it has a skull and crossbones on the top.. And it’s 40 milligram packets. And I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ ”
“I stick the thing in my mouth for no more, and I swear to God on my kids, for no more than 20 seconds, and I had to cancel dinner that night,” he said.
Both nicotine pouches and lozenges are tobacco-free, and designed to help people quit smoking.
Nicotine lozenges resemble other lozenges intended to soothe sore throats or a hard sweet, whereas a nicotine pouch is a small bag containing nicotine, which is placed underneath the lip.
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: actiononaddiction.org.uk, mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.
