There were no new decisions on either smoke-free nicotine or cigarettes in the Swedish Parliament after last week's debate in plenary. Nevertheless, opinions differed widely on how the Swedish Parliament should handle new alternatives to smoking.
"Peach-flavored nicotine pouches are not aimed at men in their 60s who smoke or sniff. There have been very good smoking cessation products on the Swedish market for many years, which have helped many smokers. It is of course also true that some people use brown snus to quit smoking, but that is not how these new products are marketed," said Karin Sundin (S&D), who argued for severe restrictions on the flavors of both e-cigarettes and white snus.
"Important alternatives to cigarettes"
She was countered by Leonid Yurkovskiy (SD). He argued that Sweden's low smoking rates and relatively low smoking-related cancer rates are clearly linked to smokeless nicotine products.
"Swedes use as much nicotine as people in other countries. But we have done something right here. We are not saying that these are cessation products. We are saying that they are important alternatives to smoking. If we want the positive trend in Sweden to continue, it makes sense that there should also continue to be more and better alternatives that attract more people away from smoking."
Wants to review marketing
Leonid Yurkovskiy said that the restrictions proposed by both the Social Democrats and the Left Party in the form of taste bans are a dangerous path to take. Instead, he stressed the importance of limiting the marketing of the products and a limit on the nicotine content of nicotine pouches.
"Of course, we will work to ensure that more people do not start using nicotine at all, and as I said, we are willing to look at things like marketing, nicotine caps, age limits and so on." said Leonid Yurkovskiy.
No decisions - waiting for investigations
Of the nearly 100 motions submitted concerning alcohol, drugs, doping, tobacco and gambling, the Social Affairs Committee proposed rejection of all of them. This is because investigations into the issues are currently underway. This proposal was voted through by a majority, with some reservations.
