THIS year’s World No Tobacco Day theme, announced by the WHO last October, is ‘Unmasking the appeal — countering nicotine and tobacco addiction’. It seeks to move the conversation around tobacco and nicotine prevention towards “new and emerging nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches and synthetic nicotine devices”. These products have already proliferated in the world around us; readers may have noticed the slick marketing campaigns, especially on digital media, seeking to position them as ‘innovative’ and ‘cool’ new things for the youth to try. The WHO rightly worries these tactics threaten to “reverse hard-won gains in tobacco control and public health”. In particular, the usage of tobacco products by children is a major global health concern, with estimates putting the number of users at a minimum of 40m worldwide, many of them using products such as oral/nasal tobacco and e-cigarettes, which are now also widely available in Pakistan. This makes the tobacco crisis a local, not just a global, concern.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs, often ranked only behind heroin and cocaine, and Pakistan desperately needs a better public education programme focused on its harms. Parents with young children, especially those entering their teens, must push for the introduction and implementation of such a programme at both the official level and in schools and colleges. Considering how easily cigarettes, nicotine pouches, vape products and other tobacco products are available, and how non-existent controls are on their sale to children, the question of what we are doing as a society to keep future generations safe demands urgent attention. Many who simply want to ‘try’ nicotine products often end up becoming daily users. Nicotine is also difficult to quit. It is, therefore, critical to keep children away from them — and that means stricter enforcement of age-based sales restrictions, real investment in public health campaigns and accountability for those who market addictive products to minors.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2026