A survey reveals one in four young Australians have used illegal and unregulated soluble nicotine sachets.

As federal and state authorities move to restrict the sale of vapes in Australia, a survey of young Australians has found around one in four have used illegal dissolvable nicotine pouches.

The survey of people aged 16 to 39 found that 34 percent used nicotine pouches because they liked the flavor of the product.

Some of the nearly 1,600 survey participants said they used the product because it helped them quit or reduce their smoking or vaping use.

The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, was conducted anonymously online from April to June 2024 and found that 19% of participants had used a pouch in the past 30 days.

Michelle Jongenelis, associate professor of behavioral psychology at the University of Melbourne and co-author of the report, said that as e-cigarettes come under greater scrutiny, retailers have shifted their focus to selling other products.

“What we’ve heard anecdotally is that teens and young adults are potentially turning to using nicotine pouches now that we have vaping reforms,” Dr. Jongenelis said.

“Nicotine pouches are illegal, but what is concerning about our research is that some retailers have now started selling these products illegally to teenagers and young adults.”

Nicotine pouches are small sachets containing nicotine, sometimes with sweeteners or flavors, designed to be placed between the lip and gum, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

The TGA said nicotine pouches were strictly regulated in Australia and none had been approved for sale here.

Nicotine is a highly addictive and toxic drug that can increase the risk of cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Australia’s Department of Health said the drug can harm brain development in young people and impact attention, learning, memory and mood changes.

Dr Jongenelis said the government needed to start monitoring the use of nicotine pouches through national surveys to understand the extent to which the product is used.

She said law enforcement needs to be stricter.

“We need to make sure that when we actually enforce the law, we do it well and that we don’t just focus on e-cigarettes, but any nicotine product that might be illegal.”

Nicotine sachets are an “innovation” from the tobacco industry, says Quit

Quit director Rachael Andersen told the ABC that nicotine pouches often contain as much, or sometimes more, nicotine than a cigarette, even if the label does not say so.

Ms Andersen said the product was another “innovation” by tobacco companies to get young people interested in nicotine.

Although the long-term effects of the product are still unknown, in the short term the sachets could cause mouth sores, sore mouth, sore throat and nausea, she said.

“Some toxic chemicals, including those that can cause cancer, have been found in nicotine pouches. And any product purchased illegally is completely unregulated, so its ingredients are completely unknown,” she said .

Ms Andersen said there was no strong evidence to prove nicotine sachets were an effective “cessation aid” and urged people wanting to quit smoking or vaping to talk to their doctor.

University of Queensland vaping and tobacco control expert Tianze Sun said the study was one of the first to explore the use of nicotine pouches in Australia.

Dr Sun said the study yielded remarkable findings on patterns and reasons for using sachets, as well as socio-economic predictors of their use.

But she said the research was biased towards younger Australians and included high numbers of people who had previously used tobacco.

“We should be very careful before generalizing the results to a wider population,” Dr. Sun said.

“A third of the sample in this study used tobacco, which is significantly higher than we typically see in the general population.”

Dr Sun said education was the key to countering the marketing of nicotine products online.