Australia Bans Every Legal Nicotine Pouch as Illicit Market Hits 80%

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Rezul -- Australia has closed the last legal pathway to nicotine pouches, leaving adult smokers with no lawful smoke-free alternative while cigarettes remain on sale nationwide, the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA) said today.

From 24 July 2026, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) shut the three remaining legal routes to nicotine pouches: personal importation, prescribing under the Special Access and Authorised Prescriber schemes, and pharmacy compounding. The TGA confirms no pouch product is approved on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. The Australian Border Force will now seize and destroy pouches found in mail, cargo or luggage.

"Australia has just told adult smokers there is no legal path to a smoke-free alternative, while the cigarette that is actually killing them stays on the shelf," said Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA's Executive Coordinator. "That is not harm reduction. That is prohibition."

The ban comes as illicit nicotine products already dominate the Australian market. Wastewater analysis by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows illicit cigarettes, vapes and loose-leaf tobacco made up around 80% of nicotine consumption in 2025, up from 12% in 2017.

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The government's own Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette Commissioner puts the illicit tobacco trade alone at $4.1–6.9 billion a year, with $7.7–11.8 billion in evaded excise. Since January 2024, the TGA and Border Force have seized more than 23.8 million illegal vapes worth an estimated $1 billion.

Tasman contrast

New Zealand, which regulates vaping as a consumer product rather than restricting it to prescription, has posted faster smoking declines. A 2025 Addiction study found daily smoking in New Zealand fell from 14.5% to 6.8% over a period in which Australia's fell from 12.2% to 8.3%. TDB Advisory research attributes 83% of New Zealand's smoking decline in the past decade to vaping, versus no measurable effect in Australia. New Zealand is now reviewing a regulated pathway for pouches and snus rather than banning them.

"New Zealand shows there is another way - regulate for risk, keep a legal channel open, and smoking falls faster," Loucas said. "Australia has the evidence sitting in its own agencies' reports and its neighbour's results. It's time policy caught up."

CAPHRA is calling on the Australian government to open a genuine TGA approval pathway for nicotine pouches, regulate the product according to relative risk, and direct the same enforcement effort toward the far larger illicit cigarette and vape trade already operating in the country.