Spain’s Nicotine Pouch Proposals Pushing the Limits of Reason

After a consultation in late 2024, a draft Royal Decree looks set to hobble the nicotine pouch market in Spain. As reported by many outlets, the proposed legislation has three prongs, which look to:

• Ban additives in nicotine pouches, such as CBD, caffeine, taurine, and other stimulants.
• Ban all flavours except for tobacco.
• Restrict the amount of nicotine in each pouch to a maximum of 0.99 mg.

It’s a ban in all but name because no nicotine pouch product currently meets these tight restrictions. Indeed, as Pouch Patrol reported in December, these regulations would remove 99% of pouches from the market, causing problems for retailers and manufacturers.

Let’s take a look at the three proposals to try and make sense of it all.

Stimulants

Market differentiation isn’t easy in the world of nicotine pouches. However, some manufacturers have tried to gain an edge by augmenting pouches with CBD, caffeine, cooling agents, etc. While this attempt to experiment with new ways to deliver value to customers is interesting, it adds a new attack vector for regulators and creates safety concerns around the product.

These additives could contribute to a better product for users. Yet, despite data about snus in Sweden, pouches are already under pressure because regulators and health bodies believe there is not enough long-term testing. Adding new ingredients only extends this process.

Tobacco flavour only

Restricting flavours, whether in pouches or vapes, is a losing policy. We know that they’re a huge part of helping people transition away from smoking. The claim that a citrus flavour pouch is designed to “target” youth users is a distraction from the fact that few adults see tobacco flavour pouches as their first choice.

What tobacco control voices seem to forget is that the availability of credible smoking alternative products doesn’t just help smokers quit. It also stops smokers from ever getting started. Wherever these products go, they chip away at the prevalence of cigarette smokers. Additionally, they are not contributing to an overall rise in nicotine use.

Regulations that make these products an irrelevant force will drive people back to smoking and ensure more youth take up cigarettes.

Nicotine strength restrictions

Proposals to reduce nicotine strength to less than 1 mg per pouch are ridiculous. Capping nicotine content at around 20 mg is fine because something like 50 mg is on the high side. However, like the recent case in Lichtenstein (with a 0.48 mg cap), this 1 mg limit attacks the product’s effectiveness and reduces its potential as a harm-reduction tool.

But how did the draft arrive at 1 mg as an acceptable dose? It seems like they looked at the average nicotine content in a cigarette (10 to 12 mg) and the around 10% that each user absorbs when smoking to arrive at the figure.

Of course, nicotine pouches don’t deliver 100% bioavailability. The NCBI suggests that you get around ¼ of the nicotine in each pouch. So, 0.25 mg is much less than a cigarette. In a world where you want people to smoke less, these strengths just won’t cut it.

Final thoughts

In many ways, it’s a sign of progress that we’re all the way down to worrying about the nicotine content in pouches. Regulating pouches must happen, but this draft’s over-zealous approach is not the way to do things.

Let’s call it what it is: a ban that attempts to destroy the utility of a product and render it completely worthless to users. In a country with a smoking prevalence of around 25%, it’s simply unacceptable.