After disposable electronic cigarettes and the ban on smoking in certain public spaces, the government continues its crusade against nicotine products.
A new commitment in the fight against addictions
The decree published on Saturday September 6 in the Official Journal prohibits all oral use products containing nicotine, with the exception of drugs and medical devices. Concretely, the sachets, pasta, balls, chewing gums, pastilles, liquids and strips will be banished.
For the Ministry of Health, this measure aims above all to protect young people. Nicotine is now classified as a toxic substance and its recreational use represents a risk of initiation to smoking.
Highly increased consumption in adolescents
Recently appeared, nicotine sachets – or widowes – Place themselves between the gum and the lip. Tobacco -free, but imbued with nicotine and aromas, they particularly attract adolescents. The National Health Safety Agency (ANSES) sounded the alert in 2023: the number of poisoning exploded, going from 3 calls to antipotons centers in 2020 to 86 in 2022. The majority of victims are aged 12 to 17.
The symptoms reported (palpitations, vomiting, convulsions, consciousness disorders …) worry specialists. Loïc Josseran, president of the alliance against tobacco, warns:
“These sachets damage the gums, promote ENT cancers and install sustainable dependence.”
Sachets that have become public health problems
Beyond nicotine, sachets contain other dangers. A survey of 60 million consumers Led in December 2024 detected traces of arsenic, lead and chrome in several products analyzed. Another argument to cut accessibility to CS harmful products.
For the tobaccoologist Bertrand Dautzenberg, this ban is certainly “useful”, but it must not make the main enemy forget: the cigarette, responsible for 75,000 deaths per year in France. However, the government assumes a prevention strategy: “it is better to stop emerging products before they explode”;
The tobacco industry in ambush
For associations, this ban is a “victory” against an industry that has found a new vein. With the drop in classical smoking in developed countries, nicotinic sachets and products constitute “the new financial eldorado of cigarettes”, according to the alliance against tobacco. The global market of widowes was estimated at $ 6.6 billion in 2023 and could quadruple by 2032.
The CNCT (National Committee against Smoking) also welcomes the decision: “This measure, obtained after a long process of European validation, constitutes an essential response to the proliferation of these products whose consumption has developed at high speed among young people.”
But on the manufacturers’ side, the French decision is deemed “dogmatic”. British American Tobacco denounces the absence of consultation and Philip Morris believes that “the prohibition strategy is ineffective”. The tobacconists, them, especially fear a “victory for trafficking”.
A difficult to apply?
Because if the decision is made, an unknown remains size: the effectiveness of this ban. Recall that six months after the ban on disposable electronic cigarettes, the puffs have not disappeared from radars. Boutiques, social networks, parallel market: they remain accessible, in particular to the youngest, despite reinforced checks.
A scenario that the authorities want to avoid with the sachets of nicotine, but that already fear associations and public health players. “”The CNCT will remain vigilant so that this prohibition is applied with rigor and that no space is left to these unworthy practices ” concludes the committee.