CAPHRA Asked Viet Nam to Regulate Nicotine Pouches Instead of Banning Them
On 10 August 2026 the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates sent a submission to the Office of the Government of Viet Nam, asking it to license nicotine pouches under strict adult-only controls rather than prohibit them. This page reports what that document says. It is an advocacy submission, not a decision, and nothing in Vietnamese law has changed because of it.
We should say plainly where we stand before you read any further. VinaPouches sells nicotine pouches. If CAPHRA's request succeeds we benefit commercially and directly, which makes us the least reliable possible judge of whether they are right. So this page summarises the submission and names its sources, and it does not tell you CAPHRA is correct.
The submission at a glance
| Document | Submission to the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on the Proposed Prohibition of Nicotine Pouches |
| Dated | 10 August 2026 |
| From | Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA), signed by Nancy E. Loucas, Executive Coordinator |
| To | Office of the Government, 1 Hoang Hoa Tham, Ba Dinh, Ha Noi |
| Copied to | Ministry of Health; Minister Dao Hong Lan; Vice Minister Tran Van Thuan; the drafting committee for the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms |
| Asks for | A licensed, adult-only regulatory category instead of prohibition, with a review after two to three years |
| Legal status | None. A submission is an opinion sent to policymakers and changes no law |
| Responds to | The prohibition proposed in Report 211/BC-BYT, dated 30 January 2026 |
Read the document yourself
We would rather you read the primary source than take our summary for it. The full five-page submission is here, exactly as CAPHRA filed it:
Download the CAPHRA submission (PDF, 165 KB, 5 pages, English)
What the document actually is
A five-page letter addressed to the Office of the Government at 1 Hoang Hoa Tham, Ba Dinh, Ha Noi, for the attention of Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Tuc and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra. It is copied to the Ministry of Health at 138A Giang Vo, to Minister Dao Hong Lan, to Vice Minister Tran Van Thuan, who holds the tobacco control brief, and to the drafting committee for the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms.
It is signed by Nancy E. Loucas, Executive Coordinator of CAPHRA.
A submission carries no legal force. It is an opinion sent to the people drafting policy, in the same way any other organisation or member of the public may send one. Resolution 173/2024/QH15 and the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms are unchanged.
What CAPHRA is asking for
The submission runs to ten numbered sections. Its opening paragraph is more restrained than the press release around it suggested: CAPHRA states it is not seeking unrestricted commercial access, does not dispute that nicotine is addictive, and holds that non-users, particularly children, should not start.
The core request is a licensed adult-only category instead of prohibition, on the argument that a licensed market gives the Ministry identifiable manufacturers, importers and retailers who can be inspected and sanctioned, whereas prohibition removes the Government's visibility over supply without removing demand.
The eight controls CAPHRA proposes
Section 4 of the submission lists the measures it would accept, and notes that several of them exceed the standards applied to ordinary consumer goods:
- A strict minimum purchasing age, with mandatory retail age verification
- No sales near schools, from vending machines, or through uncontrolled online channels
- Restrictions on advertising, sponsorship and influencer marketing
- Packaging and branding restrictions to prevent youth appeal
- Prominent health and nicotine-addiction warnings
- Maximum permissible nicotine levels per product
- Mandatory product registration, ingredient disclosure and manufacturing standards
- Enforcement powers against unauthorized products, with meaningful retailer penalties
CAPHRA's argument is that a framework built on these controls addresses the substance of WHO's concerns without foreclosing regulated adult access entirely. Whether that is true is a judgement for the Ministry, not for us.
It also asks for a review of the evidence after two to three years, with the Government retaining full authority to tighten restrictions, and for a defined personal-use exemption for adult international travellers arriving from jurisdictions where the products are legally sold.
How age verification could actually work here, from our side of the counter
The first measure on CAPHRA's list is a strict minimum purchasing age with mandatory retail age verification. In a physical shop that means a person looking at an identity card. Online it usually means a checkbox asking the buyer to confirm they are over 18, which verifies nothing at all and everyone involved knows it.
Viet Nam is unusual in already having the infrastructure to close that gap. VNeID, the national electronic identification app operated by the Ministry of Public Security, issues Level 2 accounts that carry verified personal data, including date of birth, drawn from the National Population Database. It is already used to authenticate banking transactions and public services.
What is missing is not the technology but the use of it. Alcohol and tobacco are already sold through delivery apps in Viet Nam, and at checkout the age control is generally a self-declaration rather than a check against anything. Someone under 18 completes that order as easily as an adult does. That gap is open today, on categories that are already legal and already regulated, before nicotine pouches enter the question at all.
So if a licensed framework of the kind CAPHRA describes were adopted, the age-verification requirement would not need inventing, only requiring. It could mandate electronic identity verification at checkout for oral nicotine products, which would put a newly regulated category on a stricter footing than the categories that have been regulated for decades.
VinaPouches would implement that. We are saying so in public, on our own site, because it is a commitment that can be checked rather than a claim about our intentions. A checkbox is not age verification. An eID check against a government database is, and the difference is the whole point of measure one.
We should be straightforward about the incentive: a retailer volunteering to be regulated is a retailer arguing to remain legal, and you should read it that way. But it is also the only concrete thing we can contribute to this question, since we are the party that would have to build it.
The evidence it cites, and what that evidence does not say
CAPHRA points to the United States, where on 30 June 2026 the FDA granted modified risk orders for 20 ZYN products at 3mg and 6mg. That order is real, and we have written about it separately because its scope is narrower than the headlines suggested. It covers named products from one company at two strengths, it permits one specific comparative sentence, and it has no force in Viet Nam. The FDA did not describe nicotine pouches as safe, and neither do we.
It cites Malaysia's Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024, in force since October 2024, as a regional example of licensing rather than prohibition.
And it cites the WHO global report of May 2026. CAPHRA acknowledges that report raised concerns about youth-oriented flavours, high nicotine strengths and social-media marketing to adolescents, and argues that the report identified specific regulatory interventions rather than recommending prohibition as the primary response.
Who CAPHRA is, and why that is contested
CAPHRA describes itself as a regional alliance of consumer advocacy organisations, and states on its own site that it is unfunded and grassroots, with no affiliation to any industry, tobacco or e-cigarette, since it was founded in 2018.
That claim is disputed. The Tobacco Industry Monitor operated by SEATCA, the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, lists CAPHRA on its watch register. Government officials in the region have publicly rejected the independence claim in stronger terms than that.
We are not in a position to settle it, and we are the wrong party to try. What matters for reading the submission is that you know an advocacy organisation wrote it, that its independence is contested, and that a company which sells the product is the one telling you about it.
What is actually in force in Viet Nam
Nothing in this submission changes the legal position, which is where it stood before 10 August 2026.
Nicotine pouches are not named in the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms of 2012, and they are not named in Resolution 173/2024/QH15, which prohibited electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco from 1 January 2025. Not being named is not the same as being permitted.
Report 211/BC-BYT, the Ministry of Health impact assessment dated 30 January 2026, proposes extending prohibition to oral nicotine products. That proposal is under consideration. If it proceeds, we will say so on this site.
If you want to stop using nicotine
The national quitline is 1800 6606, free across Viet Nam, run by the Respiratory Centre at Bach Mai Hospital, open 08:00 to 22:00 daily. Nicotine pouches are not a cessation product, they are not licensed as one anywhere, and CAPHRA's own submission says the same in section 8. We receive nothing from that call.
Frequently asked questions
No. Every pouch VinaPouches sells is tobacco-free: nicotine, plant-based fibre (usually eucalyptus or pine cellulose), food-grade flavouring, sweetener and water. No tobacco leaf, dust or stem is used at any stage. Tobacco-free does not mean nicotine-free. The nicotine in a white pouch is still nicotine and is still addictive; it is simply not delivered on a bed of tobacco. If you want a product with no nicotine at all, look at the Zero and Energy lines.
VinaPouches sells only to adults aged 18 and over. Age is confirmed at the age gate on entry and again at checkout, and couriers may ask for ID on delivery. Orders that fail an age check are cancelled. Nicotine pouches are not for people who do not already use nicotine, at any age. Buying on behalf of someone under 18 is a breach of our terms and will close the account.
Oral nicotine pouches are not named in Vietnam's ban on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco (Resolution 173/2024/QH15, in force from 1 January 2025), and no Vietnamese statute currently in force names them either way. Resolution 173/2024/QH15, passed by the National Assembly on 30 November 2024, prohibits the production, trade, import, storage, transport and use of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products from 1 January 2025. Its scope is written around those two categories. Oral nicotine pouches — pouches placed under the lip, containing no tobacco and involving no heating or aerosol — are a separate product category and are not listed. A draft amendment to the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms, which would bring oral nicotine products including `túi ngậm nicotine` into a defined regulatory category, has been under preparation and is expected to reach a National Assembly vote around October 2026. If it passes, this answer changes. VinaPouches will update this entry and its review date within seven days of any change in the published text of the law. The Ministry of Health's draft amendment dated 20 July 2026 names túi ngậm nicotine explicitly and proposes a ban from 1 January 2027; Resolution 11/2026/UBTVQH16 scheduled it for the October 2026 National Assembly session.
Nicotine pouches are not a liquid, aerosol or battery, so cabin-baggage rules on those categories do not apply to them. Airline conditions of carriage and each destination's import rules differ and change — check both before you fly. Several countries in the region restrict or prohibit oral nicotine products outright, and some treat them as tobacco for customs purposes. Singapore, Thailand, Australia and Japan all have their own rules on possession or import. VinaPouches ships within Vietnam only and cannot advise on any other jurisdiction.
Nicotine pouches are not a licensed smoking-cessation product, and VinaPouches makes no claim that they help anyone stop smoking. If you want to stop using tobacco, a doctor or pharmacist is the right source of advice. Licensed nicotine replacement products — patches, gum, lozenges and inhalators — are regulated as medicines, tested for that purpose and dosed accordingly. Nicotine pouches are consumer products and are not. Vietnam runs a national tobacco control programme through the Ministry of Health; your commune health station or any hospital can point you to it.