Shisha vs. Nicotine Pouches: A Nightlife Comparison
Shisha is a tobacco product under Vietnamese law today. Oral nicotine pouches are not named in any instrument in force. But the draft amendment scheduled for October 2026 puts them in the same new category, which makes the comparison more useful than it first looks: the text that would capture one would capture both.
We sell pouches and we do not sell shisha, so read the legal part from the documents rather than from us. Dates below, no verdicts.
Where shisha sits now
The Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms No. 09/2012/QH13 defines a tobacco product by reference to tobacco material, and lists waterpipe tobacco among its forms. Shisha made with tobacco is therefore inside the 2012 statute: it falls under the smoke-free place rules, the advertising restrictions and the age limit, with penalties supplied by Decree 117/2020/ND-CP — including 200,000–500,000 VND for smoking where smoking is prohibited.
Herbal shisha with no tobacco sits in a murkier place, which is a recurring feature of this area: the categories are drawn around tobacco material, and products designed to avoid tobacco material land outside them until someone redraws the line.
Where pouches sit now
Not named. Not in the 2012 law, which is built around tobacco material a tobacco-free pouch does not contain. Not in Resolution 173/2024/QH15, which prohibits e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products from 1 January 2025 and is drafted around those two categories. And not in the product list reported for Resolution 160/NQ-CP, the policy framework the government endorsed on 30 July 2026, which covers e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and "other novel tobacco products".
That is an absence in four documents, not a permission. We are not able to tell you pouches are allowed, and a retailer who does is telling you more than the texts support.
The draft that puts them in one box
This is the part worth the click. The Ministry of Health's draft amendment, in the version dated 20 July 2026, creates a category of "other new tobacco products" and names shisha, nicotine pouches and inhalable nicotine products together in it.
Resolution 11/2026/UBTVQH16 moved that draft from the April 2026 session to the second National Assembly session in October 2026. Reporting puts the amended law's effective date at 1 July 2027, with the prohibition on new tobacco products from 1 January 2027.
So the honest answer for anyone weighing the two on legal exposure is that the draft treats them as one problem, not two. Anyone choosing between the two on the assumption that one is durably outside the law is reading only the instruments in force and not the one on the timetable.
The physical difference, which is why they were separated in the first place
- Shisha burns charcoal, heats tobacco or a herbal molasses, and produces smoke drawn through water and inhaled. Combustion, smoke, inhalation, and a session measured in tens of minutes shared between people.
- An oral pouch is fleece, nicotine, plant fibre, flavouring, water and a pH regulator, held between lip and gum for twenty to forty minutes. No combustion, nothing burned, nothing inhaled and nothing exhaled.
Vietnamese tobacco legislation is built around smoke and around tobacco material, which is why one of these has been regulated since 2012 and the other has not been named yet. That is a statement about how the law is drafted. It is not a claim that either product is good for you: both contain nicotine, nicotine is addictive, and neither is a medicine.
What this means in practice
- Shisha in a venue follows the smoke-free rules. The 2012 law's prohibited places and Decree 117/2020/ND-CP apply to it the way they apply to cigarettes.
- Pouches raise etiquette questions, not enforcement ones. Nothing is exhaled, so the questions people actually ask are about disposal and about using one in a meeting.
- October 2026 is the date for both. If you follow only one thing from this page, follow that session.
Our standing explainer on the pouch position is here, the Resolution 160 piece is here, and the vape comparison is here. If you would rather try the format with no nicotine in it at all, the nicotine-free range runs to 49 products.
General information, not legal advice. Nicotine is addictive; sold only to adults aged 18 and over. Instruments and dates checked 2 August 2026. Check again after the October 2026 National Assembly session.
Frequently asked questions
Swedish snus is made from ground tobacco leaf and is brown; nicotine pouches are white and use plant fibre in place of tobacco. Both sit under the lip. Everything VinaPouches sells is the white, tobacco-free kind. The practical differences: white pouches do not stain teeth the way brown snus can, they release flavour rather than tobacco taste, and they produce far less saliva. Several brands in our catalog — Skruf, Lundgrens, Siberia — are old Swedish snus houses that now also make the white tobacco-free version. When a heritage brand appears here, it is their white line.
Take one pouch from the can, place it between your upper lip and gum, and leave it there. Do not chew or swallow. Remove it after 15 to 60 minutes and put it in a bin. Most cans have a compartment in the lid for used pouches. Press it gently into place with your tongue so it sits flat. Most people use the upper lip because it is more comfortable and less visible, but the lower lip works the same way. There is nothing to prepare, charge or light. You can talk and drink normally with a pouch in.
Most people keep a nicotine pouch under the lip for 20 to 40 minutes. The usable range is 15 to 60 minutes: flavour fades first, and nicotine release tails off after about 30 minutes. Take the pouch out sooner if it feels too strong. Manufacturers print an upper limit of 60 minutes on most cans. Extended formats such as LOOP Xtended are built to hold flavour longer, but the nicotine curve is broadly the same. Leaving a spent pouch in past an hour adds nothing.
Put used pouches in the compartment built into most can lids, then empty it into a bin. Do not flush them or drop them on the street. Keep used pouches away from children and pets — they still contain nicotine.
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.