France is one step closer to banning nicotine pouches and disposable vapes after its proposals passed a major legal hurdle.
The country’s health minister Geneviève Darrieussecq announced her intention to ban nicotine pouches, despite their proven effectiveness at helping smokers to quit, in October.
In an interview with the Le Parisien newspaper at the time, Darrieussecq said pouches contain “high doses of nicotine” and are marketed in ways that attract young people.
She described the pouches as “dangerous,” especially when used by youth, arguing that they may encourage nicotine addiction and serve as a potential gateway drug into smoking.
Proposed Bill closer to becoming law
Last week a proposed Bill to ban nicotine pouches became closer to being made law after it was approved by the upper house of the French Senate.
Currently the Bill contains suggestions to regulate rather than ban nicotine pouches through imposing a limit on their strength and higher taxes. However, the Senate is moving to get these removed in favour of an outright ban.
The new amendment states: “The objective of this amendment is to ban nicotine pouches, in accordance with the announcements of the Minister of Health and Access to Healthcare, Geneviève Darrieusecq, on October 29, 2024.
“Indeed, a regulation would amount to authorising the sale while the State had committed to publishing a text banning these products.”
It calls pouches a “worrying trend” among young people and cites a rise in reports of “poisonings” among 12 to 17-year-olds to poison control centres.
It says: “A real scourge for the health of young people, the ban on nicotine pouches would strengthen France’s place in the fight against smoking on a global scale and could help our children become, as early as 2032, the first “generation of tobacco-free adults”, the objective of which is part of the National Tobacco Control Program 2023 – 2027.”
The Bill will be discussed at a meeting between representatives of the National Assembly and the Senate today (January 30). If a final text is agreed, it will be put to a debate and vote in the National Assembly next week.
Disposable vapes ban also moves closer
Meanwhile, a ban on disposable vapes in France is also imminent. An amended version of a Bill which would ban the manufacture, marketing, distribution and supply of disposable vapes has now been approved by a Parliamentary Joint Committee.
The new version of the Bill contains an amendment defining disposable vapes as “pre-filled with a liquid and which cannot be refilled, whether or not they have a rechargeable battery.” This is reportedly in response to views among Committee members that the Bill’s text needed to anticipate advancements in vape technology.
The Bill is expected to be examined by the Senate during the second week of February.
Vape advocates and anti-smoking campaigners have criticised the new legislation as a ‘step in the wrong direction.’
Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said the ban on nicotine pouches would remove a valuable tool for smokers looking to quit.
He said: “By banning nicotine pouches, Minister Darrieussecq is closing an effective and much less harmful path for millions struggling to quit smoking. Pouches have been proven to help smokers transition from cigarettes in other countries and are much safer. Rather than offering alternatives, France risks pushing people towards smoking or the black market.”On the disposable vapes ban he said: “Prohibition doesn’t work. It never has, and it never will. A ban on disposable vapes will not eliminate the demand but shift it from regulated markets to the black market, creating negative, unintended public health consequences.”
