Alexis de la Fléchère, edited by Alexandre Dalifard / Photo credit: JAMES ARTHUR GEKIERE / BELGA MAG / BELGA VIA AFP 16:30 p.m., November 14, 2023

As part of its anti-smoking plan, the government wants to ban "puffs", these small disposable electronic cigarettes. The law to ban them is expected to be discussed in the coming weeks in the National Assembly. In the meantime, the Alliance Against Tobacco is now worried about the rise of nicotine pearls.

An equally harmful novelty? While the bill to ban puffs, flavored disposable electronic cigarettes, is expected to be discussed in the coming weeks in the National Assembly, the Alliance Against Tobacco is now worried about the rise of a new addictive trap: nicotine pearls. One in ten young people has already tried this new product.

A well-known and dangerous technique

One in ten young people is the figure put forward by the Alliance Against Tobacco. And this product is sold in two forms: beads, like candy species, placed under the tongue, or in the form of nicotine powder, sold in sachets and placed at the level of the gums. In this product, there is no tobacco inside, only nicotine absorbed through the mucous membrane of the mouth. And here too, for the recreational side, manufacturers offer different flavors (fresh mint, red fruits, etc.). The technique is well-known and dangerous, according to Professor Loïc Josserand, president of the Alliance Against Tobacco.

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"Once you've recreationally entered this nicotine addiction, behind it, the most observed exit route in international studies is still cigarettes. We are not dealing with a pharmacological nicotine distribution method, in the same way as nicotine substitutes," the specialist warns Europe 1. For him, "governments must therefore have a form of political courage that will allow them to fight effectively against these industrialists who have only one objective: to take hold of our children through the dependence they instil on them." These new products arrived in France this summer and price level, it varies from 5 to 11 euros depending on the brands.