Nic-A-Pic

My good friend Wayne tried to quit smoking for a minute once or twice. He didn’t like gum so he invented cinnamon-flavored nicotine-infused toothpicks. I think this was in 1993. The idea was that having a toothpick soaked in nicotine in your mouth was more like smoking a cigarette than chewing gum or wearing patches and would therefore be more likely to reduce the urge to smoke.

He called them Nic-A-Pics. They never saw actual distribution but he got as far as this prototype. I thought it was genius.

Wayne passed away unexpectedly a few years ago, so finding this pack of his toothpicks was a pleasant reminder of some good times.