Ireland Repeats Failed Nicotine Policies Seen Across Europe

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Prohibition Does Not Work (PDNW)

4 March 2026

Ireland Repeats Failed Nicotine Policies Seen Across Europe

Prohibition Does Not Work (PDNW), an international coalition of over a dozen think tanks and policy experts from across the globe, today criticized the Irish government’s proposals to introduce prohibitions on reduced risk nicotine products, warning that the measures repeat policies that have already failed in multiple countries. The Department of Health has announced plans for sweeping new restrictions on nicotine inhaling products and nicotine pouches, including advertising bans, strict limits on retail visibility, and severe restrictions on the flavours widely used by adults attempting to quit smoking. PDNW analyses of similar policies in countries including the Netherlands, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil show consistent outcomes: illicit markets grow, consumers lose access to regulated products, and progress in reducing smoking slows or reverses.

Local research suggests the same pattern is likely in Ireland. Independent consumer research conducted with the involvement of Irish public health expert Dr. Garrett McGovern found that many Irish vapers say they would either return to smoking or source products outside the legal market if flavour bans were introduced. Survey data seen by Prohibition Does Not Work indicates that roughly one third of Irish vapers say they would return to cigarettes if flavours were banned, while 49 percent say they could obtain flavoured products from cross-border shops or overseas suppliers.

“This research should be a warning to policymakers,” said PDNW lead spokesperson Tim Andrews. “When a third of vapers say they would go back to smoking and nearly half say they can easily obtain banned products from abroad, the outcome of this policy is obvious. It won’t eliminate vaping. It will simply push consumers toward cigarettes or the illicit market.”

“We’ve seen this experiment already.” Andrews added. “When governments restrict safer nicotine products, black markets grow and smokers are pushed back toward cigarettes. The Netherlands’ flavour ban has driven a thriving illicit market, while Australia’s restrictive regime has produced a vast illegal vape trade increasingly linked to organized crime. Mexican drug cartels dominate the central American vape market, as consumers continue to use illegal products. And in all these countries the fall in smoking rates has stagnated since these bans were introduced”

The proposals also target nicotine pouches, smoke-free products that contain no tobacco and produce none of the toxic smoke associated with cigarettes.

“Nicotine itself is not what causes smoking-related disease — smoke does. Products that eliminate combustion dramatically reduce risk. Treating smoke-free nicotine products like cigarettes makes no scientific sense. Restricting those products doesn’t protect public health – it harms it.”

PDNW warned that pushing nicotine products out of regulated retail environments could also undermine youth protections.

“When products disappear from regulated shops, they don’t disappear from society. They move into the hands of illicit sellers who don’t check ID and don’t follow safety rules,” Andrews concluded. “Rather than repeat policies that have already failed elsewhere, Ireland should look to countries where harm-reduction policies have delivered real public-health gains. Sweden is on the verge of becoming Europe’s first smoke-free country precisely because it embraced alternatives like snus and nicotine pouches precisely because it embraced alternatives like snus and nicotine pouches. Ireland is choosing the opposite path. The lesson from every country that has tried these policies is simple: prohibition does not work.”

‍

‍