PRODUCT WATCH ROUNDUP We’ve added new information to ASH Wales Product Watch about nicotine products that may be less familiar. Pouchless nicotine pods have a UK-facing retail listing: these small oral portions have no outer pouch and are not designed to melt. We’ve also added international examples of ultra-thin and semi-gel nicotine pouches, and updated our page on gels, creams, sprays and nasal inhalers. UK or Welsh availability has not been established for those international examples. These updates explain what the products are, what is verified and what remains uncertain. They do not establish how widely any product is used in Wales.
Building a Prevention Nation
Prevention means acting earlier, before smoking, harmful alcohol use, drug dependence or gambling harms become more deeply rooted. Our work connects policy, services, communities and lived experience to build a more joined-up response across Wales.
Why Wales needs a joined-up approach
Smoking, hazardous alcohol use, drug dependence and gambling harms can overlap in the same lives and communities. Yet policy, funding and support are often organised separately.
Our prevention work is built around a simple principle: people do not experience these harms in neat categories, so prevention and support should not be organised that way either.
Prevention before crisis
Act earlier, reduce exposure to harm and create healthier conditions before dependence becomes established.
Support that sees the whole person
Connect services and referral routes so people with overlapping needs are not pushed through separate systems.
Four priorities for a Prevention Nation
Our policy briefing sets out four actions for a more coherent national response to addiction and dependence in Wales.
1. A national framework
Bring tobacco, alcohol, drugs and gambling into one coherent policy and accountability framework with shared outcomes and lived experience at its heart.
2. One front door for support
Create joined-up pathways so people receive a holistic assessment and connected support wherever they first ask for help.
3. A prevention-ready workforce
Build shared skills, multi-disciplinary working and co-produced training across services dealing with overlapping harms.
4. Protection from commercial harm
Act on marketing, product design, availability and lobbying across tobacco, alcohol and gambling, with transparent and evidence-led public health policy.
What success would look like
- Fewer people starting to smoke, drink at harmful levels, use drugs or experience gambling harms.
- People with multiple needs getting timely, person-centred and co-produced support through a joined-up system.
- Narrower health inequalities, with the biggest gains in Wales’s most deprived communities.
- Less pressure on health and care services through earlier prevention and better sustained recovery.
From policy to action
ASH Wales is working with partners, professionals and communities to turn prevention into practical change. Explore the network, evidence and early-intervention work supporting this agenda across Wales.