Consumption questionable

Politicians warn of new guilty drug

City politicians warn against the new school drug "snus". They are calling for a ban on advertising because even ten-year-old schoolchildren are consuming the nicotine pouches. 

Small pouches filled with tobacco - better known as snus - are causing increasing headaches for teachers and youth workers in Carinthia. They warn that young people in particular - the youngest are said to be as young as ten - are increasingly turning to this nicotine-based stimulant. Teachers are increasingly complaining that snus is even being consumed during lessons. The tobacco pouches are simply slipped under the upper or lower lip or into the cheek pockets, where they can then take effect.

"Consumption is unhealthy!"
Klagenfurt city councillor Philipp Liesnig and his colleagues from Villach, Gerda Sandriesser and Sarah Katholnig, therefore want to launch an awareness campaign to draw attention to the harmful effects of nicotine pouches. They are also calling for a ban on advertising. Liesnig: "We have to make people aware of how unhealthy consumption can be. A pouch contains four times as much nicotine as a cigarette."

"That is a cause for concern"
And Katholnig points out that snus has already become a guilty drug: "This is particularly worrying." More educational work will therefore have to be done with parents, pupils and teachers. The politicians are also calling for nicotine pouches to only be sold to consumers over the age of 18.