By Blair Jackson For Nca Newswire and Antoinette Milienos For Daily Mail Australia
02:59 14 Jun 2024, updated 02:59 14 Jun 2024
A new nicotine product is becoming increasingly popular with young people, and parents will not be able to tell if their child is using it because they are basically invisible.
Nicotine pouches, called Zyns, snus or little lip pillows, have become fashionable thanks to social media.
They look like tiny tea bags filled with nicotine, with flavours including mint, bubblegum and mango.
Placed discretely between your lip and gum, the nicotine is absorbed directly into the bloodstream.
As the Federal Police and Border Force make a serious crackdown on the importation of single-use vapes, many of which contain nicotine, the pouches have slid in as the latest source of illegal nicotine for many young Aussies.
Authorities have seized more than 1.3 million pouches so far this year, 10 times the number seized in the past two years.
University of Sydney tobacco control expert Becky Freeman said pouches contain either organic or synthetic nicotine.
‘The range of appealing flavours, as well as the fact they can be used discreetly, may make nicotine pouches particularly attractive to young people,’ the associate professor wrote earlier this year.
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‘The nicotine contents of some of the nicotine pouches on the market is alarmingly high.’
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has not approved any pouches as a therapeutic aid to quit smoking, so they’re not legal to sell in Australia.
They can be imported for individual use with a prescription.
The federal government banned the importation of vapes in January and increased enforcement activity.
The next stage of the government’s response is to outlaw domestic manufacture, advertisement, supply and commercial possession of non-therapeutic vapes.
Since the crackdown, the Australia Border Force have made huge seizures of vapes, including 400,000 devices in one hit at Sydney, seized another 200,000 vapes in the harbour city, and an 80,000 vape haul at Brisbane so far this year.