Legal at home, trouble at the border: melatonin and nicotine pouches

Some things you buy without a second thought at home are restricted, or banned, somewhere else. Nobody asks about them before a trip, because nobody expects a problem. Here are a few we've checked against official sources.

Short version: leave nicotine pouches at home for Australia, Singapore and France. Melatonin needs a prescription to bring into New Zealand and Australia, and in the UK it's a prescription-only medicine.

Nicotine pouches (Zyn, Velo and similar)

Australia: not allowed, since 24 July 2026. The Australian Border Force says the traveller's exemption no longer covers nicotine pouches. A prescription doesn't help either: personal importation is closed too. Pouches found at the border are seized. This is new. Tobacco still has a small allowance (25 cigarettes or 25 g), and vapes have their own limited exemption, so don't assume pouches follow the same rules.

Singapore: not allowed. Singapore's health regulator, HSA, lists nicotine pouches among prohibited items, alongside heated tobacco and vapes. Singapore's border agency, ICA, bans chewing tobacco and imitation tobacco products for travellers. There's no personal allowance.

France: not allowed, since 1 April 2026. France now bans nicotine pouches and other oral nicotine products, such as nicotine beads, gum, lozenges and liquids. The ban covers bringing them in, carrying them, having them and using them, so it applies to everyone, including people arriving from elsewhere in the EU. Nicotine gum or inhalers sold as quit-smoking medicines aren't affected. This is a French national rule, not an EU-wide one, and we haven't checked other EU countries' rules on pouches yet.

Melatonin

In the US, melatonin is a supplement on the supermarket shelf. Elsewhere, it's often a medicine.

New Zealand: only with a prescription. Medsafe says you still need a prescription to import melatonin that isn't approved in New Zealand, which includes supplements bought abroad. With a prescription, the normal rule applies:

• up to 3 months' supply,
• a copy of the prescription or a doctor's letter,
• the original containers,
• and declare it on your arrival card.

Since 2025, New Zealand pharmacies can sell some approved melatonin products without a prescription, but that doesn't cover what you bring with you.

Australia: only with a prescription, in most cases. Australia's Poisons Standard makes melatonin a prescription-only medicine. There are two exceptions, sold by pharmacists: 2 mg modified-release tablets for adults aged 55 or over, and 5 mg or weaker immediate-release products for jet lag, in packs of 10 or fewer. For anything else, Australian law requires written authority from a doctor, such as a prescription or a doctor's letter, before you can bring it in for personal use. A doctor in your home country counts. Bring no more than 3 months' supply, and declare it.

United Kingdom: prescription-only. The UK's medicines regulator, MHRA, says melatonin is authorised only as a prescription medicine there. It isn't legally sold as a food supplement, so you won't find it in UK shops. UK travel guidance doesn't give a personal-import limit for prescription medicines that aren't controlled drugs, so we can't tell you how much you can bring. We say so on the page rather than guess.

Japan: a medicine, so bring only a small supply. Japan's health ministry lists melatonin among ingredients used only in medicines, so a melatonin supplement counts as a medicine at the border. Japan Customs lets you bring medicines for your own use up to 2 months' supply, or 1 month for prescription drugs, without an import certificate. The ministry describes melatonin as a prescription medicine in Japan, so we'd plan on no more than 1 month.

One more: cold medicine in Japan

Japan controls pseudoephedrine, the decongestant in Sudafed. Products with more than 10% pseudoephedrine need permission from Japan's Narcotics Control Department before you travel. The Sudafed page for Japan walks through the application.

Check yours

Look up the exact item for your destination in Trip Check, or go straight to melatonin, tobacco and nicotine in Australia or in Singapore. For France, add "nicotine pouches" in Trip Check. Every answer links to the government page it comes from.