Secondary schoolteachers have raised concerns about the use of nicotine pouches by students in what they say is an issue of “epidemic proportions”.
“Things are changing so quickly,” says Paul Crone, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD).“For years and years it was just smoking. Then it went to vaping and now it’s gone to snus pouches, all within a very short period of time. So as soon as you think you have a handle on one thing, it moves on.”
Nicotine pouches, which are widely available to buy in Ireland, are typically white and contain a powder made of the highly addictive chemical nicotine, flavourings and other ingredients. Although nicotine pouches and snus are different, the terms are often used interchangeably. Snus comes in pouches that are darker in colour and contain tobacco. The sale of snus is illegal here and elsewhere in Europe, with the exception of Sweden, its country of origin.
“It’s very hard, if not impossible, to deal with because you don’t know” when students are using them, says Crone.
Citing “irritability” and “lack of concentration” as symptoms of usage, Crone adds that “schools are becoming more convinced that nicotine addiction is playing a big part in student behaviours and it’s normalised for them”.
“It’s been normalised in many ways by influencers and sports stars who are using these nicotine pouches on their social media so the students will think that they’re harmless and that they’re cool. This is, I would say, heading towards epidemic proportions. They wouldn’t be available in every shop if they weren’t selling it.”
A recent report commissioned by the British Professional Footballers Association found that about one in five male and female professional players uses snus, nicotine pouches, or both.
Crone says the issue is difficult to deal with because it can be hard to tell when students are using the pouches as they are typically placed between a user’s lip and gum and therefore not visible.
There are signs, however: “You might spot a dropped pouch on the floor of a corridor at break time.”
I never really encourage people to take them, especially if you’ve never had nicotine before. Don’t go near them
— Ailbhe Lower, the influencer also known as Mr Bruv
In recent years Ireland has seen restrictions on the sale of vaping products and e-cigarettes to under-18s, as well as planned legislation to ban disposable vapes and increase the minimum legal smoking age to 21. Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has called on the Government to regulate the sale of nicotine pouches. The Department of Health says the pouches are currently not covered by domestic or EU tobacco control legislation, but regulation was being discussed at EU level.
Brighton-based influencer Ailbhe Lower, better known as Mr Bruv to his 425,000 TikTok followers, is rarely seen without a packet of Velo [a brand] nicotine pouches in hand. A neon-green cylinder of spearmint-flavoured pouches and pints of Guinness are both hallmarks of the 23-year-old’s viral "bruv dates" with girlfriend and fellow influencer Faye Greenwood.
“I’ve got one in right now,” says Lower, on a Teams call, tapping where the little ball of nicotine sits snugly – and undetectable – under his upper lip.
The HSE cautions that companies that make cigarettes continue to make and invest in other products that are not the same as nicotine replacement therapy.
But some former smokers and vapers argue they are using nicotine pouches and snus as a “harm reduction” strategy.
“I can just have it and I’m not obnoxiously blowing on a vape. So it’s just a way to get my fix, basically, because I am a nicotine addict,” says Lower, who says his vaping habits had started to have a negative impact on his mental health.
“It started off because I was smoking for a long time, around five to six years. And I was quite into it. Then the vapes came around and I gave that a go because I thought, well at least this way I won’t smell ... I noticed nicotine has quite a bad effect on my anxiety. I just felt myself being crazy anxious. I was googling things like ‘what do you do if you have anxiety?‘. The first results are ‘drink less alcohol, have less nicotine’.”
“My cousin had the snus, and I thought I’d try one just to stop the cravings. Then I was like ‘oh this could really be something I could see myself getting into’.”
“Ryan” (27), who did not wish to give his real name but whose identity is known to The Irish Times, from Ranelagh in Dublin, was a self-described “social smoker” through his teens and early 20s. He was similarly taken in by the wave of disposable vapes that entered the market a few years ago. “Curiosity got the better of me. Within months I’d say I was going through about five disposable vapes a week, so fairly heavy. That lasted for about two years. I just found my respiratory health really went downhill,” says Ryan.
He recalls waking up one morning “really not well, wheezing” and deciding to “get off these things” once and for all. Enter nicotine pouches. “Since October of last year I’ve maybe been having about two containers of them a week, trying to help me wean off nicotine. I’m on the lowest strength or second-lowest strength of snus pouches at the moment.”
Nicotine pouch strength is often denoted visually via a dot system on the product’s packaging – whereby one dot represents low strength (<5mg nicotine per pouch) and four dots represents high strength (>10mg). This can vary from brand to brand.
Lower has created a video trend surrounding the pouches, dubbed the 2 dot swap. Despite a consensus among users that snus lacks the social element afforded by smoking and vaping, the 2 dot swap sees couples sharing their nicotine pouches, passing a partially used specimen from one to another by mouth as a kind of romantic offering.
For Ryan, using nicotine pouches is a more private affair. “It tends to be just when I’m having a coffee or when I’m at home just chilling out, whether it’s watching Netflix or sports, or going out on a walk. That would be the kind of settings in which I use them so it is markedly different from how you’d have a cigarette or vape.”
“During a social activity, you wouldn’t be sitting there offering around nicotine pouches to your friends in the same way that someone might look for a drag of your vape or ask for a smoke off of you. I don’t see that happening.”
Both men warn against using nicotine pouches if not “to replace a worse habit”.
“A lot of people think that they [Velo] pay me, but they definitely don’t because I’m pretty sure that would be illegal,” says Lower, adding that “I never really encourage people to take them, especially if you’ve never had nicotine before. Don’t go near them.”
He says it is common for first time users to experience nausea and dizziness. “I’ve seen people who haven’t smoked cigarettes and maybe don’t have a tolerance, they take one and then they throw up and get a dizzy nicotine rush.”
This is an observation echoed by Ryan: “A lot of people say when they try their first nicotine pouch, especially if they haven’t been an active smoker or vaper and taking on nicotine beforehand, they always feel quite sick.”
From Ryan’s perspective, nicotine pouches have “a lot of benefits”. “I just feel a lot more alert and awake and being able to get back into the gym and stuff like that has been really nice.” At the same time, he is “acutely aware that they still pose a health risk” and would “love to be off them entirely by the end of this year”.
The HSE says the long-term risks of nicotine pouches are not known and notes that they can contain high levels of nicotine which can cause: increased heart rate and heart problems; increased blood pressure; sleep problems; problems with attention, learning and impulse control in young people; mental health difficulties, such as anxiety.
In Trinity, I feel like you wouldn’t put nicotine pouches on your table in a very visible area just because of societal norms. But here it’s not really a big deal
— Daniele Gudynaité
A spokesperson from the Irish Heart Foundation echoed these health concerns, stating that: “Given these risks and the absence of any benefit of these products to the young people that manufacturers are targeting, the Irish Heart Foundation believes the promotion and sale of nicotine pouches should be banned in Ireland without delay, as has already happened in Belgium, the Netherlands and some parts of Germany.”
Dr Rory Boyd, president of the Irish Dental Association, has examined research on the effect of snus and nicotine pouches on oral health.
“Sweden is one of the powerhouses of oral health research and it has actually been very heavily researched unlike new products like vapes. We have very good research and evidence on nicotine pouches. Surprisingly to me, certainly, there was very little in the way of negative health effects.”
While “local friction on the gum where the pouch is held” has been shown to “cause some recession and other gum issues ... in regards to oral cancer and any other soft tissue or oral health issues there hasn’t been any research showing negative effects,” says Boyd.
“If it’s used as a transition, as nicotine replacement therapy for a short to medium term to get somebody off cigarettes, we would be very much in favour of using nicotine replacement therapies as an adjunct to smoking.”
However, when taken as an introduction to the drug, research indicates that “there is a higher likelihood for people who use nicotine pouches to move on to other nicotine products such as cigarettes”, he adds.
Speaking about this concern, Crone said “We [NAPD] did call for a health advisory notice in relation to vaping from the Department of Health. It hasn’t come yet and I still think that would be very beneficial to help schools initiate the conversation around nicotine, but I would be pushing Government that there needs to be regulation put on these pouches too.”
Trinity College Dublin student, Daniele Gudynaité (21), is currently on Erasmus in the Swedish capital, where she says snus and nicotine pouches are being sold from vending machines.
“It is very much a part of the culture here,” she says, having observed first-hand the Scandinavian country’s efforts to become a smoke-free society. The number of people who smoke every day in Sweden has been reduced from 15 per cent to just over 5 per cent of the population in the last 15 years.
“It’s something that I think the government itself has incentivised through its policies. There are a lot of smoke-free areas that exist ... There is a consideration for other people’s health here and so that second hand smoking is what stops people from participating.
“The taxes on cigarettes and e-cigarettes are also very high and they keep on increasing them.”
Gudynaité has come to expect “the little circular boxes of snus on students’ tables” she sees during lectures and exams.
“In Trinity, I feel like you wouldn’t put nicotine pouches on your table in a very visible area just because of societal norms. But here it’s not really a big deal and that’s one of the things that surprised me,” she says.
“Exams here are quite long, usually three-four hours. People will bring in snacks and their nicotine pouches and they’ll put it all over the table.
“Most of the people that I’ve talked to who use it regularly, the reason why they bring it into exams is not to calm their nerves or anything, it’s simply because they can’t really go four hours without using nicotine.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said data on adolescent use of nicotine pouches in Ireland is being collected as part of the current European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). “As yet, there is little evidence on possible health harms from nicotine pouches as they are a relatively recent product and according to available data the prevalence of use remains low in the adult population across the EU.”
