A quick search for recent articles and reports discussing the future of the tobacco industry result in massive amounts of opinions, reports, surveys, and articles. Here in my native Sweden, we can enjoy the lowest numbers of smokers in the world despite not having the strictest regulations or the highest taxes (which we are used to having). But trying to understand the development right now leaves me a bit puzzled.
In Germany, at the heart of EU, snus is banned through an EU law from 1992. Chewing tobacco is not considered the same and is still allowed. And like the other EU countries, Germany aims at having a smokefree population (defined as less than 5%) by 2040. But instead, according to DEBRA, smoking in Germany has gone from 27 percent in 2017 to a disheartening 30.7 percent in 2024 – after topping out at 34 percent in 2021. And how is this development countered? By allowing personal use of cannabis. It is confusing.
Having suffered personal losses to smoking, I detest cigarettes and smoking. Lighting up a cigarette is to me personally an egotistical act, since in doing so, you also decide that the people around you must accept second-hand smoke or vacate the room.
But snus has been a natural part of my life since childhood. It is a personal choice for people, and one connected with far lesser health issues, so I respect that. And when we take health issues and risks into account, getting more people to stop smoking and using smokeless tobacco and nicotine instead would have a massive global impact.
Now I find myself working for a company manufacturing snus and nicotine pouches and for the first time, having to deep-dive into this world. I don’t think anybody denies both the negative health effects from smoking, but also how the tobacco industry has a long and very dark history of manipulating its customers, media, policy makers and many other stakeholders. The laws and regulations within which we now are confined are incredibly strict and it is just as it should be. For more background on how the politics around this has developed, I recommend this splendid article in Politico (August 1, 2023).
When you look into the discussions going on in the EU today, it is strange to hear representatives from countries where they still smoke like it is the 1970: s complaining about the terrible health threats from smokeless tobacco and nicotine poaches. The cost of this view can be measured in suffering, costs for the healthcare sector and ultimately in lives lost which is there for all to see. With smokeless tobacco, nicotine poaches, and the new synthetic nicotine solutions being developed, people have much safer and better choices.
No doubt, nicotine is highly addictive and a world free of substance dependency is beautiful, and one worth striving towards. But for me, the normal way to work with any crisis and problem is to identify the biggest problem, then the second biggest and so on. Politicians being up in arms about the rapid uptake of nicotine poaches, especially in young people, should give a quick cheer for this development as these users with a high degree of certainty will not be bothering the health care system in 20-30 years like the abundant smokers in many of the EU countries will.
But in Europe today, we are letting smoking roam uncontrolled. One of the main reasons behind EU’s decision to ban snus in 1992 was the concern that snus would attract even more people into getting addicted and eventually move on to smoking. Despite all the years and all the research, there is still very little that indicates that this is real threat.
In Norway, for example, the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health conducted research on snus as a tool for cessation and found that it had good effects.
In the current legal council referral (lagrådsremiss in Swedish) in Sweden, the suggestion is to further increase the taxes on smoking tobacco while reducing the tax on smokeless tobacco. We will know the outcome in June, but it is another confirmation that the world would be a better place with more people using snus. I just wished the EU would see it in the same way.
