A new nicotine product is becoming increasingly popular among young people, and parents will not be able to tell if their child is using it because they are effectively invisible.
Nicotine pouches, called Zyns, snus or lip pads, have become fashionable thanks to social media.
They look like small tea bags filled with nicotine, with flavors like mint, bubble gum and mango.
The nicotine is placed discreetly between your lip and gums and is absorbed directly into the bloodstream.
As the Federal Police and Border Patrol crack down on the importation of single-use vapes, many of which contain nicotine, the pouches have become the latest source of illicit nicotine for many young Aussies.
Authorities have seized more than 1.3 million bags so far this year, ten times the number seized in the past two years.
Nicotine pouches are available in different flavors and strengths and are prohibited for sale in Australia (pictured, young man with Swedish Zyn nicotine pouches)
Authorities have seized more than 1.3 million sachets so far this year, ten times more than in the past two years (photo, Zyn Nicotine Patches)
University of Sydney Tobacco control expert Becky Freeman said the pouches contained organic or synthetic nicotine.
“The range of attractive flavors, but also the fact that they can be used discreetly, can make nicotine pouches particularly attractive to young people,” the associate professor wrote earlier this year.
‘The nicotine content of some nicotine pouches on the market is alarmingly high.’
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has not approved pouches as a therapeutic smoking cessation aid, so they cannot be legally sold in Australia.
They can be imported by prescription for individual use.
The federal government banned the import of vapes in January and increased enforcement activities.
The next phase of the government’s response is to ban the domestic production, advertising, supply and commercial possession of non-therapeutic vapors.
Since the crackdown, Australia Border Force has seized huge quantities of vapes, including 400,000 devices in one fell swoop in Sydney, another 200,000 vapes seized in the port city and 80,000 vapes in Brisbane so far this year.
Australian Health Minister Mark Butler (pictured at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra) led the vaping ban
