Introduction

Major new evidence shows that oral nicotine pouches could play a decisive role in helping Mexico’s smokers move away from cigarettes, at a moment when policymakers are weighing tighter restrictions on these potentially life-saving products.

Despite decades of tobacco control efforts, smoking remains a major public health burden in Mexico, and pouches – currently unregulated but already subject to heavy taxation – offer a practical, lower-risk alternative for adults who smoke.

Their appeal extends well beyond harm reduction: users consistently value pouches for being more considerate to others, more environmentally friendly and easier to use discreetly than combustible or vapour-based alternatives, making them a realistic substitute rather than a niche product.

New consumer data analysed in this report, drawn from a nationwide poll of 1,024 adult cigarette and nicotine product users, provides real-world insight into how people in Mexico view, use and benefit from oral nicotine pouches. Key findings include:

• More than three out of four (77%) pouch users report smoking fewer cigarettes, with 6% quitting cigarettes altogether and average daily consumption roughly halving.
• Only 28% of all respondents consider pouches very or extremely harmful, well below cigarettes (59%), vaping (52%) and heated tobacco (44%).
• 71% of people support regulated access to pouches, while opposition to an outright ban (47%) runs almost twice as high as support for one (24%).
• 41% of those not using pouches have never even heard of the product, making low awareness – not product performance – the biggest barrier to adoption.

MEXICO’S SMOKING CRISIS

Mexico has made only modest progress in reducing tobacco use over the past decade and almost one in five Mexicans is still smoking. Adult smoking prevalence was 17.3% in 2025 – 26.2% among men, 9.2% among women – barely lower than where it stood in 2011.

This exacts a terrible toll. Smoking kills more than 63,000 Mexicans a year, about 173 people a day. It costs the country nearly 195 billion pesos annually: 116 billion in direct healthcare spending, another 79 billion in lost productivity. That’s 0.4% of GDP and 7.6% of national health spending.

In addition to its persistent smoking burden, Mexico faces a significant gap between smokers’ desire to quit and access to effective support. ENCODAT 2025 shows high motivation and frequent quit attempts but limited use of counselling and medication, highlighting the need for stronger cessation services and harm reduction options.

Meanwhile, Mexico is closing off the safer alternatives that might offer smokers an escape route.

Vapes are constitutionally banned, and regulators and public health groups routinely dismiss nicotine pouches as addictive and dangerous to young people, overlooking their harm-reduction potential.

Pouches still lack a dedicated regulatory framework, yet they are already taxed heavily, with further increases planned through 2030. Smokers looking for a way off cigarettes are finding increasingly fewer options – even as smoking keeps killing thousands.

NICOTINE POUCHES: A PROVEN SAFER ALTERNATIVE

Nicotine pouches are smoke-free and tobacco-free products placed under the lip, delivering pharmaceutical-grade nicotine without combustion. Nicotine is addictive and is not risk-free.

However, by eliminating smoke, tar and carbon monoxide, they remove the primary drivers of smoking-related disease.

A visualisation of the relative harm of all nicotine products can be found in this table (right), from the Oral Nicotine Commission 2020 Report.

Nicotine pouches present risks comparable to established nicotine replacement therapies such as gum and lozenges, which are on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines.

At the same time, pouches replicate key behavioural elements of smoking – routine and nicotine delivery – that many people who smoke struggle to replace with conventional cessation aids. This combination of low toxicological risk and high behavioural acceptability underpins their public health impact.

WHY NICOTINE POUCHES MATTER FOR WOMEN

Sweden’s experience illustrates the potential role of nicotine pouches as an additional smoke-free nicotine option for women.

Historically, Swedish women have had lower quit rates and fewer appealing alternatives to smoking. Before the introduction of pouches, the country’s impressive reduction in smoking rates was driven largely by snus, a product that primarily appealed to men. The arrival of nicotine pouches in 2016 reshaped this dynamic.

Since then:

• Female smoking prevalence in Sweden has fallen by 49%.
• Women’s quit-smoking rates have increased by 200%.
• The gender gap in smoking cessation has narrowed substantially.

SWEDISH CASE STUDY IN SMOKE-FREE SUCCESS

Sweden has cut its smoking rate by more than half since 2012 to less than one-quarter of the European average and now records some of the lowest rates of tobacco-related disease on the continent.

NICOTINE POUCHES IN THE FIRING LINE

Mexico has taken one of the toughest stances in Latin America on safer nicotine products. Since 2020, the government has banned the import, sale and marketing of vapes and e-cigarettes, citing health risks, especially for young people.

Nicotine pouches are now in the firing line. They still lack their own regulatory category, but they are already taxed heavily.

Since January 2026, pouches have been subject to a 100% excise tax based on their value, as well as a fixed charge on every pouch based on nicotine content. That charge is due to rise each year until 2030.

Health campaigners are also demanding a complete ban on flavours and additives across all tobacco and nicotine products. They argue that flavoured products are more attractive to teenagers.

Government bodies and major public health groups keep describing pouches as addictive products that put young people at risk and benefit the tobacco industry. Their messaging largely dismisses the idea that pouches could help adult smokers switch to something less harmful.

Latest research shows that 2.6% of Mexicans use illicit vapes, while nicotine pouch use is reported by 0.1% of the population. Despite this limited uptake, about three-quarters of smokers say they want to quit, yet quit rates have barely moved in more than a decade. Cutting off access to lower-risk options could stall that progress even further.

The vaping ban offers a preview of what might happen. The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS) keeps raiding and seizing products, but a thriving black market has taken hold online and through informal sellers.

If pouches face the same restrictions, Mexico risks the same outcome: less oversight, weaker consumer protections and fewer paths for smokers trying to quit.

EVIDENCE FROM MEXICAN CONSUMERS

A poll of 1,024 Mexican consumers of cigarettes and nicotine products, conducted by Prodege from 15–27 July 2026, provides critical insight into awareness, usage patterns, and perceptions of nicotine pouches.

It shows that oral nicotine pouches:

• Deliver measurable reductions in cigarette consumption.
• Are used by consumers to avoid the harms caused by cigarettes.
• Offer unique social advantages (no smoke, no smell, no disruption).
• Face barriers driven primarily by lack of awareness – not lack of effectiveness.
• Are likely to become the driver of an illicit market as a result of their prohibition.

SAFER AND MORE CONSIDERATE

Health, consideration, convenience and flavour variety drive interest in oral nicotine pouches. For pouch users, the key motivators are their compact design, the ability to enjoy them without disturbing others and their reduced risk compared to cigarettes.

Three in four (74%) pouch users rate flavours as extremely important or very important. Compared to the users of other nicotine products, pouch users are more influenced by environmental impact and impact on people around them.

Q: How important was each of these features in your decision to use oral nicotine pouches? (graph shows pouch users who selected extremely important / very important on a 5pt scale)