Growing use of nicotine pouch saints

Finn picks up a small, white, tea -like bag with a round, bright colored tin and keeps it between its upper lip and glue.

He and his partner use Nicotine Pouch until they vomit, he tells me.

The strength of nicotine – a bag at 150mg – is enough, he says, to “stable” them – especially when they use two or three at a time.

“This is the first burn,” 17 years old. “You feel this irritation against your gums, and then you get a hit.”

The hit, he says, is stronger than any cigarette, and often he and his friends will lie down, before they can hide the bag under their lips.

Fin tells me how easy it is to use them; They are so inconsistent that he also uses them in school.

He says, “I am first sitting in the classroom and there was one in my mouth that was so strong that I was everywhere.” “I was sweating, being a larger and struggling to focus.”

Finally, he says, his teacher saw that he looked “bright green” and made his excuses and got out of his mathematics lesson.

Fin, which only we want to use our first name, are not boasting. In fact, they say, they regret that they ever started using pouches. He now sees himself as a addict and wants to warn others.

“I was just bored with vepping, and now I’m trapped on them.”

The growing number of young people is using nicotine pouches – some are trying nicotine for the first time, swapping from wapping or smoking.

The data viewed by BBC News shows that the UK has increased by 16 to 24 years old by children from 16 to 24 years-at least 1% in 2022, up to 3.6% in 2024.

Pouchs are widely sold online, in supermarkets and in corner stores. At a cost of approximately £ 5 for a pack of 20, they come into exotic flavors with the strength of separate nicotine – more than 1.5mg to the claims of 150mg for “extreme” experience.

Anyone can buy them. There is no minimal age with cigarettes, veps and alcohol. Nor is there any restriction on the strength of nicotine in the pouch.

Kate Pike, Lead Officer for Trading Standards for Tobacco and Vepping Kate Pike has warned, “I have heard about children about 11 or 12 people about children.”

She says that her organization is getting the increasing number of parents and teachers that nicotine pouches are being sold to children.

“It is incredibly disappointing that we can do nothing to stop them.”

• Also known as a white snake, it contains nicotine emanating from tobacco leaves, sodium carbonate, taste and sweetness

• They often have a high pH value, the component sodium carbonate has an effect, which allows the nicotine inside the thutin to penetrate the soft lining on the gum more rapidly and enter the bloodstream, resulting in a strong nicotine kick resulting in a strong nickel kick.

Source: Institute of Odontology, University of Gothenberg

Ms. Pike is urging the government to prioritize tobacco and vapor bills that will make these pouches illegal to reduce these pouches.

“We need to take action against those who are bending either deliberate or unnaturally risked children on a highly addictive product,” she says.

Despite being a large amount of medicine, nicotine pouches do not need to display the warning, “This product contains nicotine that is a highly addictive substance on their packaging”.

If the pouch has more than 16.7mg nicotine, under the general product safety regulation, a skull and cross on the packaging should be a symbol of bones and a list of chemical components written in English.

This regulation, Ms. Pike says, is moving rapidly, the officials of the trade standards have seized thousands of illegal products across the UK.

Pouchs are much less harmful than cigarettes, and because chemicals do not enter the lungs, they may take less risk than vapes.

Harry Tattan-Binch, a senior researcher at University College London, says it is the least “harmful way” to swallow nicotine.

“If they were used to prevent smoking or evaporation to people, they could have a positive public health effect – but it would only be positive when they were used by those who wanted to leave, not by those who are trying nicotine for the first time.”

Although they may take less health risk than cigarettes and vapor, there are heart risks for people using pouches with high amounts of nicotine – and anxiety is increasing when the nicotine pouches damage the gums.

Finn has been using pouch for more than a year and says he reached a point where he was “cut for bits” and, on one occasion, he gave half a peel [his] Gum off “.

A Swedish dentist Dr. located in Bornemouth. Patrick Sarbi has treated patients who are nicotine pouch users who are so deep with gum lesions that it is possible to see the root of the tooth.

“Long -term damage to these products is extremely worrying,” they say.

One of one of his patients, a 23 -year -old student began to develop wounds in his gums while studying for his exam. He was using five pouches a day so that he could help him leave and he says to help him focus on his studies.

“It began as a recreational thing, but it caught quickly,” the student says. “I got worried when a bit of my gum – where I was keeping the bag – stopped.”

He is now nicotine-free and after leaving the vapor and pouch eight months ago, his gums are recovering.

Dr. Sarbi, who has carried out a two -year research in Nicotine Pouch, says that the risk of localized gum disease and localized bone loss increases.

He is worried that “the tide wave of nicotine pouches” that has hit Sweden – the original, tobacco -based snow house – will soon hit the UK. There, 25% of the children aged 16 to 29 are users and dentists are seeing an increasing number of painful inflammatory patients that take months, sometimes in years, recover.

A five-year study has begun at the University of Gothenburg, why white SNUS is leaving such damage compared to tobacco-based products.

Dr. Geeta Gayle, a specialist in oral medicine, who is leading the study, says it is “dangerous” how many people are using this product, given how little is known about the long -term results of its use.

The government says its “landmark” tobacco and vapor bill, which is currently making its way through the House of Lords, will ban the sale of nicotine pouches less than 18 and prevent children from being advertised and advertised.

The government spokesman said, “It will prevent the next generation from being bent on nicotine and ends the cycle of drug addiction and loss.”

Finn says many of his school friends have moved to Nicotine Pouch from Wepping. He did the same, but he feels that he has enough, and is trying to cut back.

“Everyone could think how much I needed it – it became too much,” Fin says. “Snus is very difficult to kick compared to vepping.

“My advice? Don’t bother with any of it in the first place. Nicotine implicates you.”