By the Global Institute for Novel Nicotine (GINN)

Top Takeaways:

• Challenges endgame policies: GINN says nicotine regulation should distinguish cigarettes from lower-risk alternatives.
• Responds to recent proposals: The report critiques Palau’s UN initiative and recent calls for broader nicotine regulation.
• Focuses on smoking: GINN argues that regulation should prioritize reducing smoking-related disease through proportionate, risk-based policies.

As policymakers debate the future of nicotine regulation, the Global Institute for Novel Nicotine (GINN) is urging governments to distinguish combustible cigarettes from lower-risk nicotine products rather than regulate them as if they were the same.

The report, Beyond Endgame Thinking: What The Guardian Editorial and Palau’s UN Proposal Reveal About the Future of Nicotine Governance, responds to two recent developments shaping the international debate over nicotine.

Earlier this month, the Republic of Palau urged the United Nations to consider placing nicotine under international drug-control conventions, while The Guardian argued in an editorial that policymakers should reject the concept of “addiction without harm” and pursue stronger restrictions on nicotine products.

GINN maintains that both developments reflect a broader shift away from regulating products by their relative risks and toward “endgame” strategies that increasingly focus on nicotine rather than on combustible smoking.

“Nicotine should be regulated proportionately to its risks and in a manner that accelerates the decline of combustible smoking. It should not be governed through sweeping ‘endgame’ narratives that treat all nicotine products as though they occupy the same place on the risk spectrum,” the report states.

Rather than viewing the debate as a choice between unrestricted access and increasingly restrictive controls, the report states that there is a third option: risk-proportionate regulation. Central to GINN’s analysis is the distinction between nicotine and combustible cigarette smoke.

While acknowledging that nicotine is addictive and should remain regulated, the report contends that smoking-related disease is overwhelmingly caused by combustion and exposure to toxicants generated by burning tobacco—not by nicotine itself.

GINN maintains that this distinction should remain the foundation of future tobacco and nicotine policy.

The report is particularly critical of Palau’s proposal, which would ask the United Nations to examine whether nicotine should be brought under international drug-control conventions traditionally applied to narcotic and psychotropic substances. According to GINN, the proposal rests on a misleading premise, attributing smoking-related mortality to nicotine rather than to the combustion process.

“The overwhelming majority of tobacco-related mortality is driven by combustion and smoke exposure rather than nicotine itself,” the report states.

GINN also questions whether increasingly restrictive policies adopted in jurisdictions such as Quebec and Australia reveal the limits of broad prohibition-oriented approaches.

The report asserts that when adult smokers lose access to lower-risk alternatives, some may return to combustible cigarettes, while others may turn to illicit markets. It also cites a recent International Monetary Fund analysis supporting taxation and regulation that reflect differences in product risk rather than treating all nicotine products equally.

Instead of pursuing new international nicotine controls, GINN maintains that governments should prioritize stronger implementation of existing tobacco-control measures under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s MPOWER strategy, including smoking cessation, smoke-free environments, and enforcement against combustible tobacco use.

“The central challenge for policymakers is not whether nicotine should be regulated. It should. The challenge is designing regulatory systems that recognize differences in risk, protect young people, support adult smokers seeking alternatives, and remain focused on the outcomes that matter most,” the report concludes.