Up until the current government, there was “no acceptance of a harm reduction or harm minimisation approach,” said Karl Fagerström, a researcher on tobacco and nicotine who has received consulting fees from tobacco companies. He said he was not against taxes on nicotine pouches as long as the levies on cigarettes are higher.
However, the Public Health Agency of Sweden, an arm of the government, pointed to tobacco control policies including bans on tobacco advertising, tax regulation, age limits and smoking bans for how Sweden achieved its low smoking rates.
“The decline in cigarette use has been going on for a long time, and to date, there is no scientific evidence that recent changes in the use of snus and nicotine pouches have contributed to this decline,” said the agency in a statement.
Anti-smoking campaigner Helen Stjerna, secretary-general of the non-profit A Non Smoking Generation, said the government’s position was a “tragedy” given Sweden’s historically strong stance on tobacco control. “We’re really going backward. All these things we’ve been doing for decades, it’s all forgotten,” she said.
The issue is also controversial across the bloc with EU countries such as France banning nicotine pouches for public health reasons and stirring a diplomatic row with Sweden.
The World Health Organization has warned countries not to follow Sweden in its permissive approach toward nicotine pouches. It frames nicotine pouches as an attempt by tobacco companies to create a new generation of nicotine addicts as cigarette sales fall.