Top Takeaways:
- U.S. smokers lack options — only 13% of nicotine products are authorized.
- Online sales bans would backfire, limiting adult access and fueling illicit trade.
- Smart regulation beats restriction, using tech to protect youth without cutting off adults.
Efforts to restrict online sales of nicotine products could set back U.S. tobacco harm-reduction goals, according to Dr. Marina Murphy, Senior Director of Scientific Affairs at Haypp Group.
In a new editorial, Why We Need Greater, Not Less, Access to Reduced-Risk Nicotine Products, Murphy and Ian Fearon, director of whatIF? Consulting Ltd, an independent regulatory science specialist, argued that current U.S. regulation already leaves smokers with too few alternatives. Just 13% of nicotine products are authorized for sale, according to a 2024 CDC Foundation report.
“With so few options available, imposing more barriers would only exacerbate the problem—further limiting choice, reinforcing illicit markets, and pushing smokers back to combustible cigarettes,” she said.
Murphy warned that banning online sales—often justified as a way to curb youth vaping—ignores how many adult consumers access products. “You can’t just ignore the realities of how adults access these products in the real world,” she said.
She pointed out the double standard in states that consider banning online nicotine sales while allowing age-restricted alcohol deliveries. For rural and underserved areas, she added, e-commerce is sometimes the only practical access point.
“You don’t make progress by locking the shop door—especially when most of the shelves are already empty,” Murphy said. “If smokers can’t find reduced-risk products easily, they’ll just keep buying cigarettes.”
Instead of bans, Murphy urged policymakers to strengthen compliance with existing rules and deploy technology such as robust online age verification. “Innovation, paired with smart regulation, offers the most realistic pathway to achieving smoke-free goals. Restricting adults’ access to adult products doesn’t protect public health and doesn’t protect youth—it protects cigarettes,” she said.
Haypp Group, parent of Northerner.com and Nicokick.com, is one of the world’s largest online sellers of nicotine pouches and snus. The company says its mission is to expand access to smoke-free alternatives for adult consumers across the U.S. and Europe.
Murphy’s comments come amid wider debate over nicotine access. International experience shows heavy restrictions often fuel illicit sales; in Australia, prescription-only rules for e-cigarettes created a thriving black market and slowed smoking declines.
For the U.S., Murphy said the choice is stark: “Either embrace innovation and create a better ecosystem of support for smokers—or risk keeping cigarettes as the most accessible option on the shelf.”
