Denmark’s excessive restriction on nicotine pouches – a major error

3 March 2025: The Danish government plans to restrict the nicotine content of pouches to 9 mg starting in July 2025, to be fully implemented by April 2026. I write to the government to express concerns about the effects on adults and youth and the predictable unintended consequences.

The full letter is here (PDF). I have summarised the concerns about these measures in the summary section of the letter, reproduced below.

Summary of concerns

1. If the measure aims to protect young people, it will fail. The limit will not affect youth uptake, as most youth would use less nicotine than 9 mg to begin with. It will, however, harm adults who smoke and require more nicotine in more potent formats to successfully switch.
2. Some young people would otherwise smoke, and they benefit from switching to pouches by diverting away from smoking or, to a lesser extent, from vaping.
3. Young people benefit from the improvement in the health and welfare of significant adults in their lives, and the benefits of pouches to adults are shared with youth through the family.
4. The limit of 9 mg per pouch cuts through the middle of products sold lawfully in Europe and means that users of these products will need to change their behaviour:

• Current or potential pouch users may smoke or vape instead.
• Users may source pouches cross-border or via informal suppliers that source legally sold products outside Denmark.
• Access illegal pouch products sold by criminal networks in Denmark with unknown strength and ingredients. Such networks also generally sell other illicit products, such as narcotics.
• Create new unlawful supply chains that are likely to include young people as sellers, not just users. This is an established feature of the supply of illicit drugs.
• Create risky workarounds – for example, adding nicotine liquids to pouches or simply placing two or more in the mouth at once.

5.  It is premature to set such aggressive limits. It would be better initially to set a higher limit (15-20mg) that does not trigger harmful unintended behavioural responses and to establish product quality standards that protect users from contaminants and rogue ingredients.
6. No one is protected from any risks when the products are supplied illegally or potential users end up smoking instead.
7. I have found no impact assessment that articulates these serious regulatory risks.

This follows a consultation response made in September 2024.