Aotearoa's Next Top Mode of Nicotine Delivery

ENTERTAINMENT | HEALTH

Written by Luke Fisher (he/him) | @lukefish7__ | Contributing Writer

Illustrated by Gabbie De Baron (she/her) | @gabbie.indd | Graphic Designer

Nicotine pouches, a tobacco-free evolution of the traditional Swedish ‘snus’, began to gain traction in the early 2010s. They look like mini tea bags or pieces of chewing gum. They’re placed between the lip and gum for a discrete, long-lasting nicotine hit. While they pose lower health risks than other nicotine products, experts fear this fairly new addition to the market could follow a similar trajectory to vapes.

Both products are alleged substitutes for tobacco that can help people quit smoking. They’re often packaged in vibrant, eye-catching containers. Flashy flavours, like ‘Strawberry Cheesecake’, ‘Grape Ice’, and ‘Cinnamon Flame’ are especially enticing to adolescents. A 2019 Youth19 survey of NZ secondary school students found that 80% of vapers hadn’t smoked before they started vaping. While vapes helped curb many people’s smoking habits, they also created a new generation of youth nicotine addicts. 

In Aotearoa, nicotine pouches are only beginning to garner some attention, despite their prominence overseas. They are legal to import here, but cannot be sold. An NZ Herald article from April claims they are infiltrating our schools, while a piece on RNZ details a mother’s horror at the way they are marketed to young people.

I’ve never had nicotine in my life, so I sought out a couple of mates. We’ll call them Tom and Jacob. They’ve used nicotine pouches in the past. I wanted to get their perspective on this rapidly growing issue.

The Rise of Nicotine Pouches

Nicotine pouches appeared on my radar after I watched Leroy Sane, a high-profile professional footballer, nonchalantly discarding one in a TikTok clip from a YouTube video. Helpfully captioned “Sane casually pulling out the old snus”, this snippet was a symbol of a larger issue proliferated throughout English professional football. Many are calling it an epidemic.

To get a scope of this epidemic, England's Loughborough University and The Player’s Football Association conducted an extensive study. It found approximately a fifth of all professional footballers use snus or nicotine pouches and that two-fifths of players had used it in the past. The majority of users reported signs of dependence. In a BBC UNTOLD documentary one player describes how the relaxing effect of nicotine helped him deal with the pressures of high-level sport, and how that coping mechanism quickly became an addiction. 

They seem almost ubiquitous in Europe. According to Bloomberg, about 15% of the Swedish population uses snus. But I’d never come across them in Aotearoa, until now. This is by design, as the Labour government outlawed their sale in 2020. Currently, the only way to get nicotine pouches here is to import them, an easy and inexpensive process. However, this law may soon change. According to the Public Health Communication Centre Aotearoa, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello is “likely to propose allowing the sale of oral tobacco and nicotine products, a measure included in the National-NZ First Coalition Agreement.”

The current law against the sale of nicotine pouches is “funny”, says Tom, because of the way offshore suppliers can freely target Kiwis online. “This website that we were using was amazingly advertised. It was even on my mates [TikTok] For You pages who don't even use nicotine and it would show up everywhere without being shut down.” Jacob, whose supplier allegedly imported 10,000 tins to sell illegally,  wonders what the point of the law is if anyone can import them.

The ZYNfluencer and the ZYNfluenced

They’re easy to acquire, and it’s common to simply stumble upon them. Tom says he found out about the pouches via social media. “They got really popular on Instagram and TikTok. Everyone was doing them.” They weren’t marketed to him as a tool for quitting vaping or smoking. Social media marketing is a concern amongst public health officials. One article from The Guardian Australia explains how manufacturers use Australian influencers to market the products, with “many [viewers] asking where the products can be bought and one asking, ‘Are they all good to take to school?’”. So-called ‘ZYNfluencers’ exist around the world, promoting the popular nicotine pouch brand. One video claims that “Zyn is literally a cheat code to achieving all of your dreams in life”. It is often unclear whether partnerships exist between Zyn and these influencers. Regardless, these immensely popular videos have prompted Tom and many other adolescents to give nicotine pouches a go. 

While both Tom and Jacob were attracted to nicotine pouches as a healthier alternative to vaping, other factors were also involved. Nicotine pouches are discrete. This makes them convenient for people who want to experience a nicotine hit in places where it isn’t acceptable to smoke or vape. Jacob, who mainly uses them to help with stress and focus, recalls taking one in an exam. “It was impossible to tell [I was using a pouch] even with exam people watching.” Use cases like Jacob’s, and the footballers who’d even use them on the pitch, prompt fears that nicotine pouches are becoming a popular stopgap measure rather than a quitting aid.

What’s next?

Despite these fears, you could argue for loosening restrictions on the ‘safer’ product while more heavily regulating the harmful ones. Presently, harmful cigarettes and vapes - especially among youth - are ubiquitous. It’s common to see a group of 12 and 13-year-olds vaping in  their school uniform. One study found that nearly a third of all vape stores in the country are less than a five-minute walk away from a school.  Allegedly ‘safer’ nicotine pouches are banned, while cigarettes and vapes remain widespread.

Nicotine pouches are still in their infancy, so research on the effects of long-term use is limited. What’s more, the government has learned a lesson from the trajectory of vapes. Casey Costello told RNZ she is constantly seeking advice about the safety and effectiveness of smoking alternatives. “The balance we need to strike is that we don't want young people addicted to nicotine. New Zealand didn't have any regulations around vaping until too late and youth vaping got out of hand.” Some of the product’s key selling points are contested. For example, they are touted as a way for people to wean off nicotine. However, the Ministry of Health told Costello “There is not good evidence to date to support their possible use as a reduced harm alternative to smoking and there is currently no evidence of their effectiveness for smoking cessation.”

Both Tom and Jacob were clear: if you don’t already smoke or vape, don’t go anywhere near nicotine pouches. Tom thinks they’d only be gateways into the “harder stuff.” He also advised users to stick to the pouches lowest in nicotine content because “the highest level … that shit’s crazy bro.” Many who have used the stronger options report nausea and vomiting, which can also happen to first time users.

While tobacco-free pouches are enticing because they don’t contain carcinogens, nicotine is still a harmful and addictive substance. Nicotine is often compared to drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine in its addictiveness. It can negatively affect the ability to learn, attention span, and oral health. Those under 25 are more likely to get addicted to nicotine because their brains’ decision-making and risk-assessment regions are not fully developed. And that’s exactly why some nicotine products are targeted towards young people. Nicotine can become a lifelong subscription.

Should We Rethink Our Attitude Towards Nicotine?

The scientific consensus, and my own biases, mean my first instinct towards any addictive substance is criticism. But a point Imogen West-Knights made in her piece for The Guardian made me question my thinking. “Is a nicotine habit substantially different from a caffeine one, for instance? We’re not, most of us, wringing our hands about the legality of coffee.” 

Experts disagree over whether nicotine is more harmful than caffeine. I was interested to hear Tom and Jacob weigh in on the debate. Jacob pointed out that pouches provide a relatively safe way for people to manage their nicotine habits. He also thinks nicotine pouches have less stigma surrounding them.  I could believe that, especially after reading about their popularity overseas, especially in Europe. West-Knights went as far as to call the pouches Sweden’s “national pastime.”

Meanwhile, Tom mentioned the double standards between substances like alcohol and cannabis. He also pointed out that nicotine has benefits when consumed in moderation. A 2021 study concluded that “nicotine has several cognitive benefits in healthy individuals, as well as in those with cognitive dysfunction associated with various diseases.” The main problem with nicotine, Tom says, is its delivery methods.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need nicotine. But in our imperfect reality, nicotine pouches might well be the best of a bad bunch.