Paris: City of Lights, Love… and Lunacy on Nicotine Pouches

Today, right across the river from the French Senate, the same institution that just pushed forward a laughable and draconian bill to regulate nicotine pouches as if they were literal poison, we showed up with coffee, facts, and open ears for the Parisians who shared their real-life stories with us.

Our coffee bike might not have smelled like bureaucratic panic, but it certainly drew a crowd.

Let’s be honest: nicotine pouches are not cigarettes. They don’t burn. They don’t stink. And they don’t kill. But try telling that to the French lawmakers behind the ban on pouches, who apparently believe that banning what helped millions quit smoking and live healthier will somehow “protect youth.”

Right. The same youth who are already smoking cigarettes in the bathrooms of every lycée from Lyon to Lille.

While the French government dreams of regulating its way into relevance, millions of European adults are quietly switching to healthier, cleaner alternatives.

We met dozens of curious Parisians who had either quit smoking thanks to pouches or watched friends and family escape the grip of tobacco. No more coughing fits. No more stink. No more secondhand smoke.

Once they heard about the proposed ban scheduled for March 2026, as published in France’s Official Journal, the reaction was always the same:

“Mais pourquoi c’est interdit?!” (Why is it banned?!)

Good question.

If French lawmakers truly cared about health, they’d stop ignoring the one European country that actually solved the problem: Sweden.

In Sweden:

• Youth smoking (16–29) is just 2%, compared to 29% in the rest of the EU.
  
• Cancer incidence is 41% lower than the EU average.
  
• Tobacco-related deaths are 39.6% lower.
  
• Lung cancer incidence is the lowest in Europe: 17.7 per 100,000.
  

And why? Because Sweden embraced harm reduction.

They legalized smoke-free alternatives like nicotine pouches. They taxed them proportionally. They made them available in different strengths and flavors. And they focused on educating the public, not punishing them.

If the rest of the EU followed Sweden’s example, over 3.5 million lives could be saved in the next decade.

But in France? The government would rather ban mint pouches than admit their own youth are still lighting up cigarettes.

The Protect Pouches European Bike Tour isn’t just about handing out snacks. It’s about listening to real people. And it’s about reminding politicians that choice and health are not mutually exclusive.

Next stop: Berlin.