Authorities warn of dangerous new nicotine delivery product, snus

Kids have found a sneaky new way to get their nicotine fix in the wake of the vapes crackdown. Snus are small pouches of nicotine they place directly into their mouth.

Teachers and doctors are warning about the dangers of a new drug sweeping Sydney, with scores of young people switching to small nicotine “pouches” to feed their addiction amid the crackdown on vapes.

Flavoured nicotine pouches, also known as “snus”, have flooded the market in recent months, peddled out of convenience stores and tobacconists across the city in discreet, palm-sized tins.

Snus come in a pouch tucked under the lip against the gums to send high concentrations of nicotine directly into the bloodstream.

Without the smoke or the smell, it can be easily hidden.

Medical experts are now speaking out, amid fears the constant nicotine hit can make users sick.

Snus products are being sold illegally.

Australian Medical Association public health chair Dr Michael Bonning warned the high dose of nicotine in the pouches could cause vomiting, nausea, head spins, high blood pressure, and gastrointestinal complications.

While most people inhale 1-2mg of nicotine per cigarette or vape, snus packs a punch, with between 6-11mg per pouch.

Users place snus under their top lip, against the gums.

It is illegal to buy nicotine pouches in Australia, and it is illegal for tobacconists, vape shops and convenience stores to sell any type of vaping product.

Educators and teachers are worried kids are using the nicotine drug in the classroom and on the playground without detection to feed their cravings, previously sated by disposable vapes.

One Sydney high school teacher told The Sunday Telegraph they had seen a multiple students use snus “consistently” over the past six months.

“I started to notice kids with this little bulge in their top lip, and was later informed they were snus,” the teacher, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said.

“It’s the same kids who vape; they are switching between them, doing one or the other.”

University campuses have also been inundated with the drug, as study and party cultures combine, fuelled by the desire for a cheaper nicotine fix, without smoke.

University of Sydney student Garner, 18, said he had tried snus “because they were popular and all my friends were doing it”.

He said fellow students considered snus an alternative to disposable vapes, which have become expensive and harder to buy since the ban last October.

“I know lots of friends who are … switching,” he said.

NSW Health says nicotine can cause changes to brain development and may worsen stress, depression and anxiety.

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