F
or decades, the tobacco industry’s business model has depended on one simple principle: replace every customer it loses with a new one. As cigarette smoking declines across much of the world, that strategy has entered a new phase. Instead of abandoning nicotine, multinational tobacco companies are reinventing it. Their latest product, nicotine pouches, is being promoted as clean, modern and discreet. Yet a new report by STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organisations and Products), the global tobacco industry watchdog, warns that these tiny sachets could ignite a new epidemic of nicotine addiction if governments fail to act.
A report titled Understanding Nicotine Pouches: Current Evidence and Industry Activity is not another industry-funded promotional document. It is an independent assessment that exposes how the world’s largest tobacco companies are aggressively expanding the nicotine pouch market by exploiting regulatory loopholes, glamourising nicotine use and targeting new generations of consumers. The report concludes that nicotine pouches are not simply another consumer product; they are part of a deliberate strategy to sustain nicotine dependence as cigarette consumption declines.
The numbers are revealing. According to the STOP, an estimated 34 billion nicotine pouches were sold globally in 2025, representing a 660 percent increase since 2020. The global market is expected to reach nearly $16 billion by 2027 and approximately $25 billion by 2028. This extraordinary growth is no accident. It is being fueled by the very companies whose profits have long depended on cigarettes, principally only two of the largest tobacco companies (also operating in Pakistan), which together controlled roughly two-thirds of the global nicotine pouch market in 2025. The industry’s marketing revolves around one carefully crafted message: because nicotine pouches contain no tobacco leaf and produce no smoke, they must be safer. This narrative conveniently ignores what these products are specifically designed to deliver: nicotine itself, one of the world’s most addictive substances.
Perhaps the most alarming finding in the report concerns nicotine concentration. A conventional cigarette contains 10-12 milligrams of nicotine; only 1-2 milligrams are typically absorbed during smoking. Nicotine pouches, however, are sold in strengths ranging from less than 2 milligrams to almost 50 milligrams per pouch.
Independent pharmacokinetic studies reviewed by the STOP show that a 4 mg pouch can deliver nicotine comparable to a cigarette. 8 mg pouches and stronger products can deliver substantially more nicotine than smoking. Users who place multiple pouches under the lip simultaneously, a practice known as “stacking,” may receive even higher doses. In other words, many nicotine pouches are not replacing cigarettes with lower nicotine exposure; they may actually intensify nicotine addiction.
Higher nicotine exposure has profound public health consequences. Nicotine interferes with adolescent brain development; impairs learning and memory; alters attention and executive functioning; and increases the likelihood of lifelong dependence. This makes the industry’s relentless focus on young consumers particularly disturbing. The STOP documents how tobacco companies are recycling the same marketing playbook once used to normalise cigarettes. Social media influencers, colourful packaging, dozens of sweet and fruit flavours, sports sponsorships and lifestyle branding portray nicotine pouches as fashionable accessories rather than addictive products. The slogan is no longer about smoking, it is about making nicotine “your everyday partner.” The objective is to ensure nicotine accompanies every moment of daily life, including places where smoking is prohibited.
Pakistan has become one of the tobacco industry’s most important testing grounds for this strategy. The report identifies Pakistan as one of the world’s largest nicotine pouch markets. The tobacco industry has invested heavily in local manufacturing. Multinational tobacco companies appear to view Pakistan as a strategic gateway for expanding nicotine pouch sales across low- and middle-income countries.
The STOP highlights Pakistani research showing nicotine pouches displayed near schools, positioned beside confectionery and placed at children’s eye level inside retail outlets. Nearly one in five outlets selling nicotine pouches in Karachi was located within 200 metres of a school. Focus group research cited in the report found that Pakistani adolescents increasingly perceive pouches as a fashionable luxury product rather than a highly addictive nicotine delivery device. Such findings expose the myth that these products are intended solely for adult smokers seeking alternatives.
Emerging health concerns are equally troubling. Although nicotine pouches are relatively new and long-term epidemiological evidence is still developing, the report warns that early scientific findings should not be ignored. Independent researchers have detected tobacco-specific nitrosamines, well-established carcinogens associated with tobacco products, as well as chromium and formaldehyde in certain nicotine pouch products. Studies have also linked regular use to gum lesions, periodontal disease and oral tissue damage.
The report stresses that long-term health effects remain unknown, not because the products are harmless, but because they have not existed long enough to generate decades of independent evidence. Waiting for conclusive proof of disease before regulating them would repeat the same costly mistake made with cigarettes generations ago.
Perhaps the tobacco industry’s most persuasive argument is that nicotine pouches reduce harm compared with smoking. The issue is more severe than industry advertisements suggest. Some adult smokers who completely switch away from cigarettes may reduce exposure to certain combustion-related toxicants. Yet the report emphasises that nicotine pouches are not approved smoking cessation therapies, and independent evidence demonstrating that they help people quit remains insufficient. Public health cannot measure success solely by whether one smoker switches products. It must also consider whether millions of adolescents and non-users become addicted in the process.
Pakistan has an opportunity to prevent history from repeating itself. The country should move quickly to ban nicotine pouches through comprehensive legislation. The tobacco industry has changed the shape of nicotine, but not its strategy. An industry watchdog is warning that nicotine pouches represent far more than a new product. They represent a new business model for addiction. Pakistan should heed that warning before today’s discreet white pouch becomes tomorrow’s public health catastrophe.
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