After chewing a sachet "at a cousin's" during the All Saints holidays, Fabien, 16, who testifies anonymously so as not to "worry (his) parents", wanted to "have his friends test" the product.

In the pocket of his sweatshirt, a "tropic breeze" taste box.

While at first glance a few clicks are enough to order them on the Internet, the most accessible products, such as the one shown by this high school student - sold between 2 and 10 euros per box, cola, apple or "bubblegum" flavor - are in fact non-tobacco substances, nicotine pouches.

Unlike the "original" snus, made up of strips of tobacco, water and sodium carbonate, the nicotine pockets "do not seem to be the subject of classification to date", indicates to AFP the French Observatory. drugs and addictive tendencies (OFDT), which notes a "real confusion" between these products "whose forms of administration are the same".

With or without tobacco, "it's more discreet than a cigarette, there is no smell", points out Fabien.

"I could have one now in my mouth, you wouldn't know it," laughs the high school student from Montgeron (Essonne) in black tracksuit and sneakers.

- Complaint -

On TikTok, videos viewed tens of thousands of times show teenagers slipping a small white sachet between their gum and their upper lip.

And sometimes faint or vomit, under the effect of a strong dose of nicotine.

At the end of November, in Essonne, a 13-year-old schoolboy was taken into police custody, suspected of having supplied snus to two comrades who had become unwell on the grounds of their school.

A complaint has been filed by the family of one of them and an investigation is underway, said the Evry prosecutor's office, which says it shows "particular vigilance" with regard to this product. .

Snus, tobacco in a sachet to be sucked, very addictive because it is highly dosed in nicotine, is experiencing new popularity among adolescents in France, where it is illegal © OLIVIER MORIN / AFP/Archives

Originally from Sweden, the only country in the European Union where it is legal, snus has a higher dose of nicotine than cigarettes.

According to the Alliance Against Tobacco, it can cause pancreatic cancer "due to the passage of tobacco through the digestive tract".

As for nicotine pockets, "the main risk is addiction", according to Dr. William Lowenstein, president of SOS Addictions.

Also on TikTok, some accounts dedicated to the sale of snus - in fact pockets of nicotine, for the most visible of them - rely on the alleged popularity it would enjoy among famous footballers to advertise it, taking up in particular a photo of the French striker Marcus Thuram holding in his hand what could look like a box of snus, on the plane which took the Blues to Qatar.

"Trend"

Already in 2016, the British international Jamie Vardy had told in his autobiography "From Nowhere" (untranslated) having started to consume snus when joining the Leicester club.

"The players who use them are much more than people imagine and some guys even play (with a bag in their mouths) during matches," the 35-year-old striker wrote at the time.

If he has "never been confronted", Pascal Maillé, head of the medical center of the National Football Center, in Clairefontaine, points to a "fad" in the world of football, especially Scandinavian.

"But it is a product that is anything but harmless. The fact that there is no inhalation can provide false security", he underlines.

In front of the Montgeron high school, all the high school students met by AFP know the product by name, but few are those who have already consumed it, according to their statements.

Questioned by AFP, the rectorate of the Créteil academy, which recently integrated snus into its prevention actions, evokes "new" but "marginal" reports.

Cigarette in hand, a teenager analyzes: "The snus, we hear a lot about it on the (social) networks but it is not so easy to find. Tobaccos, there are everywhere."

© 2023 AFP