The emerging craze of highly addictive nicotine pouches were placed under the lip and absorbed in the mouth commonly sold under the brand name ZYN.
The sale of nicotine pouches was banned by the Labour government in 2020, but it remains legal to import from overseas, as long as it is for personal use.
The coalition government has agreed in principle to explore legalising the products for sale which anti-smoking groups fear could lead to a new generation of nicotine addicts.
Despite a slight decline in youth vaping rates New Zealand still ranks extremely poorly on the international scale.
Figures from 2023 show New Zealand's youth vaping rate is almost three times higher than Canada the United States and Australia.
RNZ asked some high school students if they or any of their classmates vape.
"Yes, many people do just in the bathrooms and stuff, I guess," one student said.
Another agreed that their friends did too.
Other students said if a student's parents vaped, they were more likely to, and some parents bought vapes for their children.
The nicotine pouches which have started infiltrating schools often came in brightly coloured tins in a range of flavours including berry, citrus and coffee.
ZYN is owned by tobacco giant Philip Morris International.
The products are different from existing nicotine replacement therapy in the form of gum, lozenges or patches that have gone through Medsafe testing.
That is because the ZYN pouches are being sold as a lifestyle product not a medical device.
It is hard to avoid the videos of them circulating on Instagram and Tik Tok.
One student said the products had been popular at his school for some time.
"They went around at school and people try them, people like them it's the same as vapes, I guess the like rush of it and the flavour I guess."
Albany Senior High School principal Claire Amos said the vaping craze that went through their school had left her students addicted.
"They've become reliant on vapes as a way for managing their anxiety and their stress, and they're actually using it to self-medicate.
"So, when we have caught students, they were feeling anxious, they were feeling this, or they were feeling that and in many cases I get the sense that they don't want to be dependent on vapes."
Senior research fellow of public health at the University of Otago Dr Jude Ball said that was backed by research which showed the negative effects of vaping went further than physical and extended to poor mental health and self-esteem.
"So, people can feel really judged, and can you know judge themselves when they find themselves addicted.
"The hit of nicotine releases dopamine in the brain and that's why it feels good, but over time it affects the way that the brain's pleasure centre operates.
"It can make people more vulnerable to mental health problems like anxiety and depression."
In June there will be a complete ban on disposable vapes and vape retailers will not be able to have displays outside their store, while dairies and service stations will have to keep the devices out of sight like cigarettes.
Both Jude Ball and Claire Amos welcome those changes but are worried about the oral nicotine pouches on the horizon.
"That is going to be so easy for our young people to access.
"I get really concerned that just when we are starting to introduce meaningful policies to reduce vape use in New Zealand, we're about to get something that could prove even worse.
"There's no evidence that those products are better than what we've already got in terms of helping people quit smoking but there's a lot of evidence that those products are being marketed heavily to young people."
Unlike vaping, which produces plumes of scented vapour, people using pouches can do so fairly undetected.
Checkpoint has approached the Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello on the matter, and also ZYN owner Philip Morris International.
