Government Bans Sniffy in France

The government has announced the upcoming ban on Sniffy, the white energy powder sold online and in tobacconists, which had provoked unanimous indignation from politicians and health professionals.

On Wednesday, July 24, Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Health, Labor and Solidarity, announced that she had signed a decree allowing the banning of this product. The latter should be published in the Official Journal in the coming days.[1].

A ban desired by the public authorities since the launch of the product

Reported at the end of May on the French market, this white energizing powder is sold in one-gram capsules, to be consumed nasally using a small straw. Directly referring to the consumption of cocaine, but essentially composed of legal energizing products such as taurine or caffeine, this new product has until now benefited from a legal vacuum. However, due to the wide media coverage it received, Sniffy had aroused strong indignation, particularly from Catherine Vautrin and Frédéric Valletoux, Minister Delegate for Health and Prevention, who had both committed to banning the marketing of this product as soon as possible.

This situation echoes the marketing of nicotine pouches, also sold in different flavours and available in a growing number of tobacco shops. However, as the National Committee against Smoking pointed out, the marketing of nicotine pouches is in principle illegal in France.

Flavors, age verification: a strategy for targeting teenagers

Although the sale of this powder to minors is prohibited, everything indicates that The manufacturer primarily targets teenagers. In a strategy similar to that of disposable e-cigarette manufacturers, the product is available in different sweet and fruity flavors. Above all, no rigorous age verification is carried out by the platform, since the Internet user is simply asked to enter their date of birth to access the site. On its home page, the site offers a delivery service for its products, promising "fast and discreet shipping", which could cast doubt on the manufacturer's desire to reserve its product for adults.

Faced with controversy, Sniffy backpedals

Faced with the controversy, Sniffy published a press release on its website in June, denying that it had sought to evoke an "alleged incitement to cocaine consumption". According to the manufacturer, the "inhalation" method of consumption was solely intended to accentuate "the speed of the product's energizing effect". Since then, the platform has informed Internet users that the product should only be consumed sublingually, or orally, by diluting the product with water. Although the manufacturer denies this, the parallel with cocaine consumption remains obvious, through the name and attributes of the product, a "euphoric" white powder sold with a straw. The allusion to cocaine use was also quite directly assumed by the product's old slogan: "A white powder that you inhale through your nose? Although it may evoke forbidden pleasure, it is completely within the law."

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FT

[1] The World, Government Bans Sniffy, a Nose-Inhaling Energy Powder, 07/25/2024, (accessed 07/26/2024)