The Press in France | “Sniffy”, the powder that is controversial in France

(Toulouse) In newspapers, on TV, in tobacconists and in the street: a strange white powder with energizing claims is fueling conversations in France these days. This is because “Sniffy” is inhaled through the nose, like cocaine, and is perfectly legal.

“Boost your energy instantly”. At the end of the school year, the website of the Marseille company Sniffy is making great promises to young people who will purchase its snorting powder, which has only been on sale for a few months.

Because it is clearly this clientele that the controversial product is aimed at: with its packaging in vibrant colors and its flavors of mint, lime, passion fruit or “candy strawberry”, Sniffy powder borrows from the marketing of energy drinks .

What exactly does it contain? According to the company’s website, the powder contains caffeine, arginine, creatine, but also taurine, added to most energy drinks such as Red Bull.

If we believe Sniffy, it’s simple: you just have to snort the powder through your nose – you provide a straw – and the effect is immediate: for around thirty minutes, you gain in “ endurance, energy and concentration.

It remains simple to obtain the powder, theoretically prohibited for minors. For less than $25 Canadian and delivery costs, you receive by mail a box containing approximately “20 sniffs”.

“A smut”

Reactions to the release of this energizing product are strong. “Can you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning? Seriously, you should be ashamed. » “Where is the head office of your stupid company that I’m going to piss on the front door? “, we read on social networks.

Many French doctors have come out publicly to say that the idea of ​​snorting an energizing powder is not the idea of ​​the century.

On Monday, it was the French Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity, Catherine Vautrin, who spoke on the substance in a television interview.

This product is “junk” which must be declared illegal, Frédéric Valletoux, Minister Delegate for Health and Prevention, said a few days earlier.

The Addictions France association has denounced this product, which “flirts” dangerously with the codes of cocaine.

“The commercial promotion constantly plays on the ambiguity and the resemblance with cocaine (sniff, white powder, energy shot, festive), but it specifies, because any reader might wonder, that contrary to appearances, but above all to this ambiguous promotion, this white powder is not cocaine,” writes Bernard Basset, doctor and president of this association.

An ambiguity that the company is not without seeing.

“A white powder that you inhale through your nose? No confusion, Sniffy is legal,” we read on its website, where there is no mention of cocaine.

According to BFMTV, the two entrepreneurs behind Sniffy – who have not come out publicly and have not responded to messages from The Press – already have 14 companies under their belt.

Out of stock

Officially, the Confederation of tobacconists (tobacco shop owners) has positioned itself against the product, but some of its members publicly take a different view.

This is particularly the case of the president of the Haute-Garonne tobacconists, who told the newspaper The Dispatch that he ordered some for his own business.

“The wholesalers are already out of stock, but I should receive some within a few days,” he told the daily. If it is not prohibited, he does not see why he could not market it.

In Toulouse, rue des Lois, the clerk at a tobacconist smiles when asked if he knows “Sniffy”. Yes, but he doesn’t care, he says.

“It will soon be banned, we will not sell that,” said the man, while affirming that many passers-by came to ask “out of curiosity” if he had any in his business.

A curiosity and media attention which are having an effect, for Sniffy, which indicates “that due to too many orders”, the delivery time is extended.

” Victim of his own success ! », writes the company on social networks.