We are on the side of consumers for safer nicotine alternatives

Another compromise proposal on the EU’s new Tobacco Tax Directive (TTD) has now been circulated from Brussels. But behind the word “compromise” lies, in practice, the same fundamental failure as before. What we are seeing is unchanged, excessively high tax levels on risk-reduced nicotine products—now merely disguised by slightly softer transition periods. Markus Lindblad, Head […]

The World Health Organization claims it wants to save lives. In practice, it does the opposite.  – In its latest report on global tobacco use, WHO deliberately blurs crucial distinctions between deadly combustible smoking and significantly less harmful nicotine products. All nicotine is lumped together as a single threat. The result is not public health policy, but an ideological tripwire, says Markus Lindblad, Head of Communications at Pouch […]

The European Commission has set its sights on nicotine pouches. In a new proposal on EU‑wide tobacco taxation, Brussels wants to force Sweden to raise the tax on nicotine pouches by around 500 percent – despite the products being tobacco‑free and despite Sweden having the lowest smoking rate in the EU.  The EU’s new Tobacco Taxation Directive is not a technical adjustment. It is a frontal attack on smoke‑free nicotine products – and on Sweden’s successful harm‑reduction model.  For the first time, nicotine pouches are singled out as a product category […]

The Swedish experience of harm reduction is well known, but what is happening in the rest of the world? As global institutions mark 20 years of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, countries are finding out the answer to an important question: Does tobacco control work better when it embraces harm reduction […]