Nicotine Pouches Are More Popular Than Ever

Nov 23, 2025 | Nicotine pouches are flying off the shelves across the UK – and increasingly, it’s teenagers buying them.

Host: Tomini Babs
Writer & Producer: Amalie Sortland
Episode Photography: Sofia Fenton
Executive producer: Rebecca Moore

Listen to the ‘Daily Sensemaker’ podcast here.
Dear, oh dear, oh dear! What a cock-up! The busybodies at the top, the meddlesome powers-that-be, have played and fiddled around so much, trying to reduce the number of smokers in society that they have made the situation ten times worse than it was or need be! The unrelenting war on smokers and smoking has done little good, but much harm.

The fact of the matter is this: If they had left things alone, the number of smokers in society was dropping dramatically from its all-time high in the post-war period, in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. And how did this happen? Largely through public information campaigns on the dangers of smoking and through infomercials. However, by being too aggressive, they have made matters worse. Over the years, they have been promoting e-cigarettes and vaping as less harmful alternatives to conventional cigarettes, when they are anything but. And now these: nicotine pouches are being marketed. But in the long-run, both vaping and sucking on nicotine pouches will surely prove to be more injurious to health than smoking conventional cigarettes ever was, especially if done in moderation.

Our know-nothing, do-gooding politicians have forgotten what it was like to be young. They have forgotten that young people look for kicks. It’s part and parcel of growing up. And, if they can’t get their kicks one way, they will get them another way. But get them, they will.

I know what I would prefer if I were a father… I would prefer my children to enjoy the occasional conventional cigarette than to start vaping or sucking on nicotine pouches. Naturally, I would prefer my children to abstain from all things like this, but I am a realist, not an idealist.

By the way, I am only a matter of months away from being able to say that I have been a non-smoker for four years! Now that is quite an achievement, I think, especially considering how much I used to enjoy a smoke. — © Mark Alexander

Extra-strong Nicotine Pouches Packaged Like Children's Sweets

BBC: Extra-strong nicotine products designed to appeal to children – including some which have ripped off the logos of popular sweet brands – are being openly sold in shops, BBC Scotland has found.

A Disclosure reporter, filming undercover, bought nicotine pouches which mimic the name and branding of the well-known "Millions" sweets in a shop in the east end of Glasgow.

The shop worker who sold the pouches claimed they contained 100mg of nicotine, which would make them about 10 times the strength of a cigarette.

Tests later showed a lower level of 17mg, which would still be defined as extra strong by most legitimate manufacturers.

Trading Standards said they were concerned about products with a "worrying child appeal" as well as flavours and "eye-catching packaging" that mimicked sweets.

However, there is no law restricting the age of sale for nicotine pouches, so any child can legally enter a shop and buy the addictive products. »

How’s that war on smoking working out for you, Starmer? – © Mark Alexander

High on Snus in School: The Hidden Nicotine Pouches Shredding Teens' Gums

BBC: Finn picks up a small, white, teabag-like pouch from a round, brightly coloured tin and places it between his upper lip and gum.

He and his mates use nicotine pouches - or snus - until they vomit, he tells me.

The strength of the nicotine - at 150mg a pouch - is enough, he says, to "immobilise" them, especially when they use two or three in one go.

"It's the burn at first," the 17-year-old explains. "You feel this burning sensation against your gums, and then you get the hit."

The hit, he says, is far stronger than any cigarette, and often he and his friends will lie down before they put the pouch in place, hidden under their lips.

Finn tells me how easy they are to use; they are so inconspicuous he even uses them at school.

"I've sat in class before and had one in my mouth that was so strong I was all over the place," he says. "I was sweating, salivating and struggling to concentrate." » | Ruth Clegg | Health and wellbeing reporter | Sunday, July 20, 2025

Britain’s New Nicotine Addiction that Could Be More Dangerous than Vaping

THE TELEGRAPH: The dangerous rise in these oral pouches is taking a worrying toll on the health of the nation’s youth

A screenshot from this article in the Telegraph | Experts are concerned that the pouches are another attempt by the tobacco industry to keep people addicted | Credit: Getty
Last year, Jessica Kent, a doctor working in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Toronto, found herself with an unusual patient. Confused, nauseous, and slumped on the floor of the emergency department, readings showed that his blood pressure had soared to levels far higher than would be expected for an otherwise healthy 21-year-old university student. When medical staff attempted to ask some simple questions, his responses were nonsensical.

But this patient wasn’t drunk or high on narcotics. It would later transpire that these symptoms were the consequence of a binge on nicotine pouches. While studying, the man had used 15 extra-strength pouches in the space of just 12 hours. » | David Cox | Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Just what exactly has been gained from the war on smoking that has been waged over very many years is difficult to imagine. It seems to me that young people these days are getting up to far worse than smoking a few cigarettes. This habit, for example, is fraught with health dangers. Further, it is hard to imagine a more off-putting habit than sucking on a nicotine pouch! And God only knows what these pouches are doing to the user’s gums. It must surely be hard to have healthy teeth and gums when stuffing nicotine pouches in one’s mouth incessantly. – © Mark Alexander

Drinking and Smoking among Teens Drops, but This Surprising Vice Is on the Uptick

Fox News medical contributor Nicole Saphier joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to weigh in on a new survey that says over two-thirds of U.S. teenagers don’t drink, smoke or use marijuana.