People who use nicotine pouches should be careful if they are visiting France or certain other EU countries soon.
UK tourists in Europe warned over carrying item used by 590,000 people
UK tourists are being warned carrying nicotine pouches could get them in trouble in some European Union destinations. People who use nicotine pouches should be careful if they are visiting France or certain other EU countries soon.
France has banned the product, even for personal use. Nicotine pouch producer KLAR has warned that with the number of pouch users in the UK at more than 590,000 and growing, families could be caught out.
Germany and the Netherlands have also banned nicotine pouches entirely. KLAR warns you risk “fines, confiscation, or even criminal penalties”. KLAR chief risk reduction officer Tomas Hammargren urged holidaymakers to keep pouches in their original packaging.
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That will make it easier for customers officers to see what you are carrying, making the process quicker, according to Hammargren.
There has been a “huge boom in use across the EU,” Nico Latteur, a policy officer focused on cancer prevention at the Association of European Cancer Leagues, told Euronews Health.
Eastern Europe and the Nordic countries are the largest markets in Europe, the report said, with 12 per cent of youth ages 15 to 24 in Denmark using nicotine pouches.
Last year, health minister Geneviève Darrieussecq told the French newspaper Le Parisien that the pouches are “dangerous” and that it is the government’s “duty to prohibit the marketing of these products”.
Richard Crosby, UK director of the campaign group Considerate Pouchers, slammed the penalties, warning thousands of British tourists could now be treated like drug traffickers.
He said: “How can carrying a nicotine pouch be worse than carrying heroin and result in going to prison — let alone for five years?”
Crosby added: “The penalties being proposed by French authorities are terrifying, completely disproportionate and make no sense.”
“The messaging for people using pouches instead of cigarettes in France — other than they are considered criminals — seems to be the government would prefer it if you smoked,” he said.
“It is a huge, backwards step.”