Despite Belgium having banned the sale of nicotine pouches one year ago, they are still easy to find in local shops, The Brussels Times has found.
"Every shop has them, they just put them in there," said the shopkeeper at a corner shop in Brussels, while pointing to a bottom shelf on a wooden cabinet perpendicular to the counter.
Nicotine pouches are small bags which contain a nicotine powder. They are used by placing the pouch between a person’s gum and lips, allowing the nicotine to be absorbed into the body.
The pouches were banned in Belgium in October 2023, as a part of a series of measures to achieve a ‘smoke-free’ generation. While they do not contain tobacco, nicotine pouches can be a "stepping stone" to smoking, argued the outgoing Health Minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, last year.
But when The Brussels Times visited a corner shop earlier this month, we found six different flavoured nicotine pouches for sale.
Nicotine pouch sold in Brussels after the ban. Credit: The Brussels Times
"[Sellers] are very inventive in finding ways to bypass legislation. They are very creative in hiding the products: in washing machines, chip boxes, ovens, etc.," the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Annelies Wynant, told The Brussels Times.
This year, 318 of the 1,781 establishments checked by the authorities did not comply with the ban, resulting in 3273 packets being seized.
While the nicotine ban relates to food product laws, and is thus of the competence of the Ministry of Health, the police also carries out compliance checks. Illegal sales of nicotine pouches will often result in fines, usually ranging between €208 and €120,000, according to Wyant.
In addition to being illegally sold in shops, online sellers are a significant hurdle to the ban: "We have an e-commerce service but for the moment they focus on online sale of (e-)cigarettes and online advertisement for (e-)cigarettes and not yet on nicotine pouches," said Wynant.
She further added that online sales would be better tackled through police investigations rather than by the Ministry of Health, as the Ministry "lacks the necessary expertise and resources to handle this effectively."
According to Wynant, a successful ban requires a greater understanding of the sector as well as sharing information and insights about where the pouches tend to be hidden.
However, while the challenges of the "ever-changing" nicotine market remain, Wynant says the (planned) bans of the pouches in neighbouring countries, including the Netherlands, will facilitate the implementation of the ban.
