Parliament Debates Nicotine Pouch Rules on Wednesday, and a Lung Specialist Calls the 12 mg Cap Three Times the Strongest Quit-Smoking Gum
The government's bill would ban sales to minors, advertising and online sales of the tobacco-free sachets. A pulmonologist says it still allows too much nicotine and keeps mint and menthol; other clinicians warn against driving smokers back to cigarettes.
Nicotine pouches, the small tobacco-free sachets that users tuck under the lip, are already on sale and taxed in Portugal, but have no rules of their own. On Wednesday the Assembleia da República (Parliament) debates the government's bill to change that, and a lung specialist says the draft still allows far too much nicotine in each pouch.
The bill is a proposta de lei de autorização legislativa (legislative authorisation bill). If Parliament passes it, the government gains the power to approve, by decree-law, a full legal regime for the manufacture, import, distribution, sale, labelling, advertising, taxation, inspection and penalties for the products, Lusa reported on Tuesday.
What the government wants
The Council of Ministers approved the proposal on 7 May. Its communiqué describes pouches as "nicotine products without tobacco for oral use, whose sale has been growing", and says the regime fills a regulatory gap. It lists the main measures:
- a ban on sales to under-18s;
- maximum nicotine limits;
- the removal of flavours and other features that make the products attractive;
- a ban on advertising and on online sales;
- a penalty regime to enforce the rules.
The government says the regime rests on scientific evidence and on World Health Organization recommendations, citing nicotine's high potential for addiction, the particular vulnerability of minors and young people, and the risk that pouches lead users on to other forms of nicotine.
A cap three times a quit-smoking gum
Daniel Coutinho, a pulmonologist in the smoking working group of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia (Portuguese Pulmonology Society), told Lusa that the draft allows up to 12 milligrams of nicotine per pouch. The strongest gums and lozenges prescribed to help smokers quit carry at most 4 milligrams, he said, and patches 21 milligrams released over a full day; a cigarette contains about 2.4 to 2.8. "Allowing 12 mg of nicotine in pouches is unnecessary and scandalous," he said.
Coutinho said a ban would have been the ideal, though he accepts that closing the legal loophole matters. Today, he said, the pouches are sold "as if they were a food supplement". He also criticised the draft for leaving room for mint and menthol pouches instead of banning all flavours, and said the marketing was not aimed at smokers: he pointed to summer festival sponsorship and to colourful packs sold in newsagents near schools. The government's text, in his words, tries to turn a "wild west" market into a "semi wild west".
The other side
Not every health professional agrees. One submission to the public consultation on the draft, signed by several clinicians including former health secretary of state António Lacerda Sales, treats pouches as a lower-risk alternative to cigarettes. Making them unattractive or unavailable to adult smokers, they wrote, could slow the move away from combustible tobacco. They argued for regulation along three lines, in step with the European Union: no sales to under-18s or marketing that appeals to them, clear labelling and health warnings, and maximum nicotine content.
The same group pointed out that the 2026 State Budget already created a separate tax category for nicotine pouches, so the product is on sale and taxed. Banning it now, they said, would leave the state taxing something it then outlawed.
Pouches entered the public debate this summer after a complaint about their promotion at music festivals. Wednesday's debate comes days after Portugal's addiction chief reported that alcohol dependence nearly quadrupled in a decade.
