France Is Banning Zyn and Threatening To Jail People for 5 Years

The French government has criminalized the use of nicotine pouches. Users can be punished with up to 5 years in prison and a fine of almost half a million dollars.

If you're planning on packing Zyn for your European summer vacation, you might want to reconsider.

On Sunday, the New York Post reported that France had banned "a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches." Those caught violating the measure could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $436,600.

While other European countries have moved against nicotine pouches, France is the only Western country to criminalize their use.

"It's as if we would prohibit French baguettes or French wine in Sweden," Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa told the Financial Times. He also called the ban on these pouches, which originated in Sweden, an "attack on the Swedish way of living."

In addition to inciting rage from other countries, the ban could face legal headwinds under Europe's single market rules, which guarantee the free movement of most goods among the E.U.'s member states. Under the new French regulations, which went into effect on April 1, a Swede could legally buy pouches at home, visit France, and face prison time and an enormous fine.

As the Financial Times reports, Sweden, Italy, Greece, and four other countries have raised "formal concerns" that the French ban violates the E.U.'s single market laws. Five Swedish members of the European Parliament have even threatened to stop going to the French city of Strasbourg—which hosts the European Parliament's monthly meetings—arguing that the ban has "direct consequences for the free movement of persons" because they risk sanctions for traveling to France.

The French health ministry has classified nicotine as a "toxic substance" and justified the ban as necessary to curb rising dependency on the chemical compound. But in doing so, the government risks trading in reliance on one substance for dependency on a far more dangerous one.

Nicotine pouches are far less harmful than cigarettes. As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration points out, "for adults who smoke, switching completely from cigarettes to nicotine pouches may reduce exposure to many harmful chemicals found in cigarettes." A randomized controlled study published in 2023 measured 20 biomarkers of exposure and found that people who completely switched from cigarettes to nicotine pouches had dramatically lower exposure to harmful chemicals within just one week. Reductions were approximately 42 percent to 96 percent compared to the group smoking cigarettes, which was at a similar level to those who quit using tobacco products entirely. The researchers concluded that "the substantial reduction in harmful and potentially harmful constituent exposure" suggests that switching from cigarettes to nicotine pouches "may present a harm reduction opportunity for adults who smoke."

Not only are nicotine pouches far safer than cigarettes, but they are also an effective cessation device. In a cross-sectional study, 62.9 percent of nicotine pouch users reported quitting smoking entirely. An ongoing study of people living in the Appalachian region in the United States, where the prevalence of cigarette smoking exceeds 30 percent in many of these rural counties, expects to find that oral nicotine pouches increase the likelihood of quitting smoking.

The ban on these alternatives will likely have an outsized impact in France, where tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable deaths, and was responsible for 68,000 premature deaths (11 percent of total mortality) in 2023. And with 55 percent of daily French smokers saying they wanted to quit the habit in 2024, a lack of access to nicotine pouches will keep many people addicted to cigarettes.

Meanwhile, Sweden, which has the lowest smoking rate in Europe, has achieved remarkable success for public health, predominantly thanks to oral nicotine products. Since the 1980s, it has seen its smoking rate fall from 30 percent to less than 5 percent.

Banning a safer and healthier method of nicotine consumption, especially in France, where smoking rates are so high, is counterproductive and harmful to public health. This is, yet again, another example of a European government needlessly dictating what people can and cannot do. In this case, the harms could not be more obvious.