South Africa’s tobacco legislation was written before e-cigarettes, nicotine gum and nicotine pouches existed. It regulates tobacco. It does not clearly regulate nicotine — and that gap is now being advertised through.

SAMNET is looking for people with expertise in health legislation and advertising regulation to help take this up. See the call at the foot of this page.

What Prompted This

A paid promotion for a nicotine product appeared on a popular South African news site. Challenged, it was defended on the grounds that the item is a

tobacco-free nicotine product which are not prohibited from being sold in South Africa. The advertisement is, therefore, in line with the Advertising Regulatory Board’s requirements and South African law.

That may well be correct as the law currently stands. Which is the problem.

Two things concern us more than the advertisement itself. The product is marketed as a “safer alternative” to cigarettes. And free samples are offered, shipped anywhere in the country.

We are deliberately not linking to the promotion. The page is at velo.com/za/en/free-trial. Please do not order the product, and please do not open the page out of curiosity — traffic improves its standing in search results, which is exactly what we are objecting to.

Nicotine Is Not a Neutral Substance

A review in the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, available through the National Library of Medicine, puts it plainly: nicotine is the fundamental cause of addiction among tobacco users, its biological effects extend to the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal and reproductive systems, and several studies have found it carcinogenic. The review concludes that its sale needs to be strictly regulated, and that any substantive beneficial effect on the human body is yet to be proven.

The Mayo Clinic describes nicotine dependence in one sentence: nicotine produces pleasing effects in the brain, those effects are temporary, and so you reach for another.

This Is a Known Pattern, Not an Accident

The evasion of marketing restrictions is well documented. The research summarised on the regulation of nicotine marketing describes the sequence: banned on television, advertising moves to print; banned in conventional media, it moves to sponsorship; banned in stores and on packaging, it moves to undisclosed marketing representatives, sponsored online content and viral campaigns.

Stealth marketing works precisely because it is not openly attributed to the company behind it — which neutralises the mistrust of tobacco companies that is widespread among the children and teenagers who supply the industry with most of its new addicts.

And there is a second route: sell the less-regulated product instead. Television advertising of cigarettes is banned in the United States; television advertising of e-cigarettes is not. That is the same move being made here, with pouches.

Comprehensive bans do work — where substitution becomes impossible, consumption falls. Partial ones mostly redirect the spending.

What We Are Asking For

At a time when this country needs greater responsibility, we are slipping behind. While the health debate is consumed by NHI — whatever one’s view of it — a changing market is exploiting the failure of legislation to keep up.

If you have the skills, the resources or the contacts, please help take this to the authorities and close the loophole around nicotine advertising and nicotine products. It will likely mean amending legislation or regulations, and it will likely be challenged by the tobacco lobby. That is not a reason not to start.

info@samnet.co.za · WhatsApp 084 333 3979

Shared by the South African Muslim Network in the interest of public health.