Starting next week, the federal government will impose new restrictions on nicotine pouches, making it illegal to sell them outside a pharmacy counter.
From August 28th, pouches will be sold under the brand name Zonnic., They will be completely banned from convenience store and gas station shelves, the Berry Frost and Tropic Breeze flavors will be recalled, and only menthol and mint flavored pouches will be allowed in pharmacies.
“Anything that was clearly targeting young people is over,” Health Minister Mark Holland told CBC News on Thursday.
The Canadian government has vowed for about 10 months to crack down on the sale of nicotine pouches, after national health groups warned about the dangers of teens becoming addicted to the drug.
“It’s very disturbing to see young people who have never smoked cigarettes becoming dependent on nicotine pouches,” Holland said.
Holland accuses Imperial Tobacco, the cigarette manufacturer that makes the pouches, of exploiting a loophole in Canadian law to get Health Canada approval.
“We were deceived” Holland told CBC News in November.
The federal government passed the bill in June of this year. Give the Minister of Health more powers Unilaterally restricting the sale, advertising, manufacture, or import of any product that is harmful or not used as intended.
“You never know what hole they’re going to come out of next to try and attack our kids,” Holland said of tobacco companies.
The federal government has given Imperial Tobacco six months to change its packaging and advertising. New containers must include an addiction warning on the front label. Advertisements that may appeal to young people must be changed by the end of February.
Holland said the new measures may come too late for some.
“I’m very concerned that there are kids out there who are already addicted. I’m very concerned that the tobacco companies have already achieved their goal,” he said. “I’m disgusted by it.”
Eric Gagnon, vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs for Imperial Tobacco Canada, said he believes Holland harbors a “personal grudge” against the company, which went through a two-year approval process to legally sell nicotine pouches.
“Apparently, we’re being treated differently because we’re a tobacco company,” he told CBC News. “The people who are suffering the most right now are adult smokers who have been using Zonic.”
It’s not a total ban
Health Canada approved Zonic in July 2023 under former Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. Natural Health Products Regulation As a way to help adults quit smoking. Similar flavored pouches are approved for recreational sale in Europe.
Each small flavored pouch, which users place between their gums and cheek, delivers the same amount of nicotine as three or four cigarettes, and is intended for people who smoke 25 or more cigarettes a day and are trying to quit, according to Health Canada.
Because Zonnic does not contain tobacco and is not inhaled, it is not subject to existing state or national tobacco or e-cigarette laws.
To date, there have been no regulations on the pouches’ flavor, packaging, advertising, or where they are sold. Outside of British Columbia and Quebec, young people have been free to purchase Zonic at convenience stores and gas stations.
Imperial claims Zonic is not intended for minors and says it has instructed convenience store clerks to check identification before selling it to customers. The company also says that prominently selling Zonic on store shelves would encourage smokers to quit. Imperial has lobbied strongly against federal regulation.
“People are telling us they’re loving e-cigarettes more and more,” Ottawa convenience store owner John Zyad told CBC News. “They’re saying it’s safer for their health and they’re saving a lot of money compared to cigarettes.”
Health groups are not calling for an outright ban on nicotine pouches, but instead want Ottawa to make it harder for people under 18 to buy them by cracking down on how the products are presented and marketed — using candy-like flavors, colorful packaging and fun ads to appeal to young people.
“We’re not asking for smokers to be denied the opportunity to use e-cigarettes, we’re simply asking for restrictions on how e-cigarettes are presented and sold,” said Cynthia Callard, executive director of Canadian Physicians for Smoking Cessation.
Callard said he would like to see the new restrictions put in place quickly, as teenagers prepare to return to school.
“The autumn term of school is a really important time in terms of the norms that are set for children and the introduction of new products such as fidget spinners, vaping products and nicotine pouches,” she said.
Ottawa not properly tracking teen use, experts say
Because Ottawa does not track the product, it is unclear how many teenagers tried the pouches during the years they were readily available, or how many became addicted to nicotine as a result.
Zonnic hit the Canadian market around the same time that Health Canada stopped collecting key data on tobacco and nicotine use, Callard said.
The Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, which provided quick statistics on youth and adult use, was discontinued last year. CBC News has repeatedly asked Health Canada why the survey was discontinued, but the department responded by saying it was meant to be a short-term survey to replace a separate nicotine survey that was discontinued in 2019.
“It just mysteriously disappeared,” Callard said.
This major gap in data collection comes at a critical time for public health, with the growing popularity of e-cigarettes and the introduction of nicotine pouches, said David Hammond, a public health researcher at the University of Waterloo who studies nicotine use in Canada and other countries.
“In a sense, we’re flying blind,” he said.
Hammond said data the team has collected over the past few weeks suggests that nicotine pouch use is on the rise among Canadian youth.
That would be in line with what happened in Canada when e-cigarettes were introduced, he said.
“E-cigarettes are an effective way for smokers to quit, and some of this is already happening,” he said, “but the clearest evidence is that more young people are using nicotine products now than 10 years ago, the first time we’ve seen this in many years.”
Hammond said the government should also investigate whether tobacco pouches help adults quit smoking, as Imperial claims.
“There are still four to five million adult smokers in Canada. Many would like more help to quit, but many smokers will avoid this product because it is branded and marketed as something for children, not a treatment aid,” he said.
Hammond said more data is needed to track the evolving tobacco industry.
“This is a very difficult area for any government to play whack-a-mole on,” he said.
“We need to get beyond the situation where the industry is scrapping products and not knowing anything until a year or two later.”
