Electronic cigarette sales hit record-low numbers in Connecticut this year — but this does not mean residents are consuming less nicotine.
The amount of nicotine Connecticut residents purchase in e-cigarettes has increased, despite fewer unit sales, according to state data. And nicotine pouches, which gained widespread national popularity in recent years, are a growing market in Connecticut.
In Connecticut in May, there were fewer e-cigarettes sold, including vapes, compared to any month in the past six years. Across the state, there were 440,000 sales.
As many as 1.2 million e-cigarette products were sold in a single month in recent years. The most sales were recorded in March 2022, when 1.24 million products were purchased.
While unit sales fell from March 2020 to March 2026, the amount of nicotine sold in e-cigarette products, not including products sold online or in vape shops, increased by more than 240% in Connecticut, according to an analysis by Monitoring Tobacco Product Use, a CDC Foundation program.
Companies across the nation are making e-cigarettes larger and stronger. A study published in the National Library of Medicine in 2023 found that from 2017 to 2022, the amount of nicotine in most e-cigarettes increased. A similar study published in 2023 found that the products are both larger and stronger.
“Compared to just five years ago, today’s e-cigarettes deliver higher levels of nicotine at increasingly cheaper prices,” the CDC Foundation told the CT Mirror in an email. “E-cigarettes remain the most commonly used tobacco product among youth and young adults, and flavors continue to drive youth use.”
But the market is rapidly changing. Sales of nicotine pouches increased across the country over the past six years, and an industry that used to be worth less than $100 million is now a $600 million business.
A popular nicotine pouch brand called “ZYN” is owned by Philip Morris International, a tobacco company headquartered in Stamford.
There is currently no publicly available state-level data tracking nicotine pouch sales in Connecticut, but the rate of youth nicotine pouch use is 2.4%, or approximately 3,800 high school students, according to the state Department of Public Health.
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York have all seen dollar sales of nicotine pouches increase by tens of millions of dollars since 2020.
While national sales of nicotine pouches are increasing, Connecticut’s neighboring states are not experiencing the phenomenon as Connecticut regarding e-cigarettes. In New York and Massachusetts, nicotine sales have increased slightly, but unit sales of e-cigarettes have also increased slightly.
Some states with no restrictions on flavored nicotine products, like Washington, have seen fairly steady numbers of unit sales but higher amounts of nicotine sold.
In Connecticut, around 16.8% of adults use any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, according to the latest numbers from the Department of Public Health from 2024. This number has decreased since 2015, when nearly 20% of Connecticut adults used tobacco products. (Nicotine pouches were not included in this survey).
While the number of residents using tobacco products has declined, the American Lung Association rated the state’s legislative tobacco control an “F” in 2026. The state allocated $13.6 million and received $1.2 million federally in FY 2026 for tobacco control programs, but the CDC recommends spending $32 million on control programs.
