NEWS on Farsalinos

News-Week, August 27 - September 04, 2026

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

US Courts Diverge, EU Grinds to a Halt: Nicotine Policy Slips Into Open Confrontation

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New York State enacted a 75% wholesale tax on tobacco-free nicotine pouches taking effect September 1, 2026. Distributors must also settle a retroactive floor tax on stock already on hand by September 21.
Australia’s federal Opposition put forward a plan to slash the national tobacco excise by 80% and bring regulated adult sales of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches out from behind pharmacy-only restrictions. The stated aim is to erode the margins of an illicit trade that, by the Coalition’s reckoning, now accounts for as much as 80% of all tobacco consumed in the country.

The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2026

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A 91-page situation report from Knowledge•Action•Change was recently released, the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction (GSTHR) 2026, covering tobacco harm reduction (THR) developments from January 2025 into early 2026. This report represents a single synthesis of data on smoking prevalence, safer nicotine product use, regulation, pricing, science and policy across more than 200 countries, and is released approximately every 2 years.

The Core Findings
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Five findings define this edition:

News-Week, August 20–26, 2026

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Covering news published August 20–26, 2026

Regulators, Researchers Issue Dueling Signals on Safer Nicotine Products
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U.S. regulators kept expanding the market for lower-risk nicotine products in the final week of August 2026, even as major pediatric and public health bodies published sobering evidence on vaping’s effects on young people — and a landmark evidence review reaffirmed vaping’s edge as a quit-smoking tool for adults.

UK Tightens the Rules on Vaping and Nicotine Products

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The UK government has published new guidance setting out a significant overhaul of the rules governing the sale of vaping and nicotine products across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The changes, issued by the Department of Health and Social Care, take effect on 29 October 2026 and mark one of the most sweeping updates to nicotine retail law in the UK to date.

A single, UK-wide age of sale
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The headline change is a unified minimum age of sale of 18 for all vaping and nicotine products, closing gaps that previously existed between nations and product types. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, age restrictions had only applied to nicotine-containing vapes; from October, they will extend to non-nicotine vapes as well. Scotland already restricted both nicotine and non-nicotine vapes, but will now also bring nicotine products more broadly into scope — including nicotine pouches, nicotine strips and nicotine pearls, along with synthetic nicotine.

NEWS on Farsalinos

News-Week, August 27 - September 04, 2026

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