If you are a California resident who has switched from flavored vapes to nicotine pouches because of state and local restrictions on the flavors adults prefer, a pair of new laws will soon deny you access to flavored nicotine pouches. Deja
You read that right. The sale of flavored nic pouches will be outlawed in California in just a matter of months. It's like déjà vu all over again.
This ban will include each and every popular flavored pouch from ZYN, Zimo, On!, Sesh, Rogue, Velo, Juice Head, FRE, Lucy and others.
Nic Pouch Flavors Outlawed in 2025
Starting on January 1, 2025, you will no longer have access to any flavored nicotine products, whether it is disposable vapes or any pouch brand. The ban includes retail and online sales of nic pouch flavors. Despite no public health crisis necessitating these broad restrictions, AB 3218, and SB 1230 have been signed into law.
Why Were Nic Pouch Flavors Outlawed in California?
Teen vaping has fallen to its lowest levels in a decade. Despite misinformation, underage use of nicotine pouches is negligible compared to historic trends. Myriad studies have shown that vape flavor bans increase cigarette sales, making it reasonable to extrapolate a total ban on alternative nicotine products will be that much worse.
This is simply an outright prohibition on the ash and smoke free alternative products most popular with adult nicotine consumers.
Nicotine Pouch Flavors Face Extinction
The California nicotine flavor ban bars the sale of flavored cigarettes, oral tobacco products and e-cigarettes with nicotine. It is a sweeping law that was crafted to fully encompasses synthetic nicotine pouches like Zimo and ZYN. The law also expands the definition of nicotine to include nicotine analogs such as 6-methyl. This means future alternative products will not be legal for sale either.
The law further empowers the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to seize flavored tobacco, nicotine pouch and vape products during routine inspections. The two new laws will eliminate flavored nicotine pouches from the market at the end of the year.
We recommend stocking up now. This is not a drill.
The same restrictions that have hammered adult vapers for years are being applied with equal force to your favorite brand of nic pouch.
California Nicotine Pouch Ban Legislation 2025
Here are the two new laws that completely deny adult consumers access to the flavored nicotine pouches and alternative products of their choice.
AB 3218
AB 3218 emerges as a pivotal piece of legislation banning ALL flavored tobacco, nicotine, and nicotine analogue products in California. AB 3218 law mandates the creation of an "Unflavored Tobacco List" by the Attorney General, comprising tobacco products devoid of characterizing flavors. Any flavor other than artificial tobacco is considered characterizing.
Much like a hair shirt for sinners, former tobacco users are expected to use unflavored products or endure abysmal fauxbacco flavors as penance. That has to be the explanation, as fruit and mint flavors are permissible in every other consumable product on the market, ranging from kombucha to hard seltzers to breath mints and the sundry cannabis edibles that actually look like candy.
To feature on the Unflavored List, manufacturers must submit a legally binding declaration affirming that their products are unflavored. Any nicotine pouch, vape or tobacco product not on this list will be considered illegal, and manufacturers and distributors face substantial penalties for non-compliance.
AB 3218 extends existing restrictions to encompass online sales, thereby prohibiting the delivery and sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine products, including nicotine analogs, to California residents starting January 1, 2025.
SB 1230
The law that allows seizures by tax inspectors was given an anodyne acronym: Strengthen Tobacco Oversight Programs and Seize Illegal Tobacco Products Act.
The STOP ACT is a freedom stripping and market distorting law that empowers the state to seize property and bans formerly legal and age-verified products sold to adults.
SB 1230 expands state enforcement capabilities to guarantee the January 2025 vape flavor ban cannot be circumvented. It grants increased authority to seize flavored nicotine pouches, vapes and tobacco products, from both physical and online markets during routine tax inspections.
The bill also amends the definition of nicotine and now reads: “nicotine means any form of the chemical nicotine, including any salt or complex, regardless of whether the chemical is naturally or synthetically derived, and includes nicotinic alkaloids and nicotine analogs.”
What Can Be Done?
Obviously, the concerns of small businesses and the adult consumers who use flavored nicotine alternatives in place of combustible cigarettes are of little concern to lawmakers or nicotine abstinence zealots.
The legal system is the chief recourse, although raising awareness and contacting your local political representatives, because they should be representing you and not outside lobbyists, is crucial.
The ZYNSurrection of this spring brought attention to nicotine pouches but the threat of a total ban is always imminent.
Existential threats to adult access to alternative nicotine products are not new. Myriad studies show that adults prefer flavored nicotine products, vape flavor bans increase cigarette sales and that countries like the UK and Sweden have slashed smoking rates with alternative products.
Sweden is considered Smoke Free by the WHO after aggressively promoting oral nicotine products over cigarettes, despite pushback from the EU.
This reality hardly makes a hardly a dent in the public discourse on a crucial health policy.
The same prohibitionist forces that have so effectively attacked the American vaping industry have fired the first salvo at nicotine pouches. Make no mistake. A total ban is the goal.