The most highly potent forms of nicotine pouches sold over the counter will be banned April 1 in Plymouth, making it the latest Massachusetts community to halt their sale.
In a unanimous vote by the Plymouth Board of Health on Wednesday, any retail pouches containing more than 6 milligrams of nicotine will no longer be available for sale.
Less potent 6 mg pouches – often used by smokers to help them quit the habit – will still be available.
“One of the things that we are trying to do is have people slowly get off of cigarettes,” said Teri Reid, chair of the Board of Health, explaining how any quantity over 6 mg per pouch are too high to wean people off nicotine.
Tobacco vendors who sell such pouches will be hit with a fine of $1,000 if they fail to comply with the rule. If the sale is to someone under 21, the penalty includes a 7-day license suspension. Penalties would increase for subsequent violations. Upon a fourth violation, a vendor could lose its license altogether.
Reid said the board found some people put more than one pouch in their mouth at a time, including teens under 18, even though it is illegal for them to buy any nicotine products.
“We thought, in a way, of helping to at least limit the amount of nicotine that people were getting that it was in the best interest of health to decrease it,” Reid said.
Peter Brennan, executive director of the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, said the cap does not make sense if the goal is to get people to quit smoking.
“If, say, you are a cigarette smoker, you probably have a pretty high tolerance to nicotine,” Brennan said. “Then, you might want something that’s stronger than 6 mg and if that’s not available, then maybe you don’t transition.”
Bourne is among a handful of Massachusetts municipalities where the ban is already in place.
Nicotine pouches are not tobacco, but pouches made of microfibers containing nicotine and other ingredients to help the addictive drug be absorbed through the gums and lining of the mouth.
Nicotine pouches sold in Massachusetts are unflavored, as flavored tobacco and nicotine products are banned statewide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most nicotine pouches sold from 2019 to 2022 had 6 mg or less of nicotine, but sales of pouches with 8 mg increased faster during that same period than pouches with lower concentrations.
But Reid said Plymouth retailers told the board that most customers did not buy pouches with more than 6 mg.
“So they didn’t feel that it was going to harm them that much to go to the 6 mg. [limit],” Reid said.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.