Canada’s doctors worried about youth using caffeine pouches / Des médecins canadiens inquiets de l’utilisation des sachets de caféine chez le jeunes

By Omar Mosleh, Staff Reporter, The Star, with comments from Dr. Nicholas Chadi, January 4, 2026

Caffeine pouches are easy to find, and some are marketed to youth. Their popularity is driven by young people’s videos on platforms such as TikTok. LyvWel caffeine pouches were purchased on Amazon by a Star reporter. They’re used by placing them in the gums to deliver a quick hit. Health experts say more should be done to restrict access to such pouches by youth.

They come in flavours like bubble gum, pink lemonade and red gummy bear. They resemble the kind of silica gel packet you find in packaged food, but instead of sucking up moisture, they’re placed in the gums to deliver a quick, potent hit of caffeine straight to the bloodstream.

The sale of caffeine pouches is illegal in Canada, but the unregulated products can be easily purchased online. The Star has also spotted them for sale at least one Toronto convenience store. Some of the pouches purportedly contain nearly three times as much caffeine as a single can of Red Bull. The products are popular among youth, experts say, driven by videos of young people trying them on social media platforms such as TikTok. (…)

What’s particularly concerning is that the products come in fruity and candy flavours, which might make them more enticing to youth, who would be more vulnerable to adverse effects of high caffeine intake, said Dr. Nicholas Chadi, a pediatrician and associate clinical professor at University of Montreal who specializes in adolescent and addiction medicine.

They follow a trend of sweet-flavoured nicotine pouches, of which only one brand is approved in Canada and must be obtained through a pharmacist for smoking cessation, and flavoured vapes.

“I’m quite concerned by the rapid emergence of a very wide range of products that seem to be considered quite benign among young people,” Chadi said. “I’m very concerned about the fact that there’s little attention around caffeine pouches when there is still harm.” (Full story)