As PM Petteri OrpoThe NCP government has made efforts to reduce the use of addictive nicotine pouches by young people, banning a number of flavors that could be found in the pouches and considered appealing to young people.

Parliament approved the legislation earlier this month. Last year it was reported that the availability of nicotine sachets, which do not contain tobacco, had significantly reduced the smuggling of oral tobacco products from Sweden.

The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported on Tuesday that the government had decided to allow nicotine sachet flavors produced by a Stockholm-based company, a move it said may have been driven by lobbying efforts.

Citing external information, the newspaper claimed that a number of sachet flavor varieties produced by Strengberg’s Habit Factory had been included in the legislation at the request of government partner the Swedish People’s Party (SPP).

Habit Factory recently started a nicotine sachet production plant in the Swedish-speaking town of Jakobstad.

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Jakobstad (Pietarsaari in Finnish) is home to the former president of the SPP, Anna-Maja Henrikssonwho is currently a Member of the European Parliament.

According to Helsingin Sanomat, the government agreed in mid-April to include four additional non-banned flavors in the legislation on nicotine products. In addition to the exempt flavors of mint and menthol, it added rosemary, tea, ginger and wood flavors to the list.

Some other flavors reviewed were not included.

Earlier this week, Iltalehti newspaper reported that Habit Factory’s Finnish competitor, Valo Sweden, was concerned about the law on tobacco products.

CEO of Valo Sweden, Timo Nurminentold the newspaper that Habit Factory is the only company making sachets with these four exempt flavors.

“These flavors are only made by one company in the world, Habit Factory, which, interestingly, opened a factory in Pietarsaari this year. These flavors are made there,” he told the newspaper.

Henriksson and Grahn-Laasonen explain

Yle’s Swedish language news unit, Svenska Yle, called Henriksson about this. The former education minister said she wanted to give her version of what happened.

“After government negotiations, it was clear that the list of (banned) flavors would be changed. The company had also submitted a list of its flavors to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and we were also aware of this,” Henriksson told Svenska. Yle.

She stressed that her party saw this legislation as a way to combat the black market and increase tax revenues.

According to Henriksson, allowing only mint and menthol flavors would encourage people to obtain nicotine sachets abroad, leading to a potential loss of tax revenue. Nicotine sachets are also very popular in Sweden.

Henriksson said she was surprised that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health had not come to a solid decision on which flavors were considered for “adults”, other than specifically stipulating which flavors were allowed and which were not. .

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She said the government had looked at a number of flavors of nicotine sachets and all four coalition parties had agreed on which ones had been approved.

Svenska Yle asked Henriksson if it was a coincidence that the company that markets these specific flavors is in her hometown, Jakobstad, where the SPP has strong support.

“This company could be located in Helsinki, Kuopio or Rovaniemi. In principle, the Swedish People’s Party had the same opinion on this. We wanted to open the debate on flavorings because we wanted to counteract the gray economy. We wanted “The Finland should get more tax revenue instead of going to Sweden. In the worst case, it would lead (people) to sell on the black market, which would have negative consequences,” Henriksson told Svenska Yle.

Henriksson said discussions on the issue have strayed from the main question of which flavors should be allowed and that too much attention has been paid to the Jakobstad-based company.

“It’s a bit sad, because if I was from Helsinki I would definitely have had the same opinion basically regardless of where the company is based,” she said .

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Meanwhile, the Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP), which heads the ministry responsible for legislation on nicotine products, said it had only recommended that two flavors (mint and menthol) be included in the list of exempted flavors when formulating the law.

“During the budget negotiations, the SPP wanted to open up the already existing agreement and submitted a long list of demands for new flavors,” she told Yle.

Ultimately, the other three government parties – the Finns Party, the Christian Democrats and the National Coalition Party – agreed to the SPP’s demands to include the additional flavors of rosemary, tea, ginger and wood.

Grahn-Laasonen said the NCP did not know where the list of suggested exempt flavors came from.

“My team and I have refrained from meeting and receiving pressure from stakeholders in the tobacco and nicotine industry. This is a conscious decision based on the interpretation of the Framework Convention of WHO for tobacco control,” said Grahn-Laasonen.

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