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Starting next week, the federal government will impose new restrictions on nicotine pouches. It will now be illegal to sell them anywhere other than behind the counter of a pharmacy.
From August 28, the bags, which are sold under the brand name Zonnic, are being completely banned from convenience store and gas station shelves. Berry Frost and Tropic Breeze flavors are being recalled and only menthol and mint flavored sachets will be allowed in pharmacies.
“All those things that are clearly targeted at young people, that has come to an end,” Health Minister Mark Holland told CBC News on Thursday.
Ottawa has been promising to restrict the sale of nicotine pouches for nearly 10 months. National health agencies warn of the risk of teens using them and becoming addicted to nicotine.
“It is extremely disturbing to see so many young people becoming addicted to these nicotine pouches, even though they have never been exposed to cigarettes before,” said Holland.
Holland accuses Imperial Tobacco, the cigarette manufacturer that makes the pouches, of exploiting a loophole in Canadian law to get approval from Health Canada.
The federal government is cracking down on the sale and marketing of flavored nicotine pouches, which it claims are designed to attract teens. Starting August 28, they will only be allowed to be sold behind pharmacy counters, and some flavors will be banned outright.
“We have been deceived“, Holland told CBC News last November.
The federal government passed legislation in June of this year give the Minister of Health more powers to unilaterally restrict the sale, advertising, production and import of products that are harmful or are not used as intended.
“We never know what hole they’ll come out of next to attack our children,” Holland said, referring to the tobacco industry.
The federal government says Imperial Tobacco will have six months to make changes to its packaging and advertising. The new packaging must include an addiction warning on the front label. All advertising that could 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 children who are already addicted. I’m very concerned that tobacco companies have already achieved their goal,” he said. “It disgusts me.”
Eric Gagnon, vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Imperial Tobacco Canada, said he believes Holland has a “personal vendetta” with the company, which went through a two-year approval process to legally sell nicotine pouches.
“We’re apparently treated differently than anyone else because we’re a tobacco company,” he told CBC News. “The biggest losers right now are the adult smokers who are using Zonnic.”
It is not a complete ban
Under previous Health Minister Jean Yves Duclos, Health Canada approved Zonnic in July 2023 via natural health product regulations as a method to help adults quit smoking. Similar flavored sachets are permitted for sale for recreational use in Europe.
One small flavored pouch — which the user places between their gum and their cheek — delivers nicotine equivalent to smoking three to four cigarettes. Health Canada says the pouches are intended for someone who smokes more than 25 cigarettes a day and is trying to quit.
Because Zonnic does not contain tobacco and is not inhaled, it does not fall under existing provincial or national tobacco or vaping laws.
Until now, there were no restrictions on the flavors, packaging, or advertising of the sachets, or where they could be sold. Outside of British Columbia and Quebec, youth could freely purchase Zonnic at convenience stores and gas stations.
Imperial has argued that Zonnic is not intended for minors and says it instructs store clerks to check for identification before selling it. The company has also said that having Zonnic visible and available in stores could encourage smokers to quit. Imperial has lobbied hard against the federal restrictions.
“People are saying they like it more and more,” John Zyadh, an Ottawa convenience store owner, told CBC News. “People are saying it’s safer for their health and they’re saving a lot of money compared to cigarettes.”
Health groups have stopped short of calling for an outright ban on nicotine pouches. Instead, they have urged Ottawa to crack down on the way the product is presented and marketed — the candy-like flavors, the colorful packaging, the fun ads that appeal to young people — and to make it harder for people under 18 to buy them.
“We are not asking for smokers to be deprived of the ability to use them. What we are asking for are restrictions on the way they are presented and marketed,” said Cynthia Callard, executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
As teenagers prepare to return to school, the new restrictions can’t come soon enough, Callard said.
“The fall semester is a very important time in schools in terms of setting standards for kids and introducing new products, whether it’s fidget spinners, vaping products or nicotine pouches,” she said.
Ottawa is failing to properly track drug use among teens, experts say
It’s unclear how many teens tried the pouches in the year they were readily available, or became addicted to nicotine as a result, as Ottawa doesn’t track the product.
Zonnic entered the Canadian market around the same time that Health Canada stopped collecting large data on tobacco and nicotine use, Callard said.
The Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, which provides quick statistics on youth and adult use, was cancelled last year. CBC News repeatedly asked Health Canada why the survey was cancelled; the department said it was intended as a short-term survey to replace another nicotine survey it cancelled in 2019.
“It mysteriously disappeared,” Callard said.
That large gap in data collection came at a critical time in public health, as vaping became more popular and nicotine pouches were introduced, according to David Hammond, a public health researcher at the University of Waterloo. He studies nicotine use in Canada and other countries.
“In a sense, we’re flying blind,” he said.
According to Hammond, data his research team has collected in recent weeks suggests that nicotine pouch use among youth in Canada is increasing.
That would be similar to what happened in Canada when vaping was introduced, he said.
“Our experience with vaping, which can be an effective method to help smokers quit, is that some of that has happened,” he said. “But the clearest evidence is that there are more young people using nicotine products today than there were a decade ago. That’s the first time in many, many years that’s happened.”
Hammond said the government should also investigate whether cigarette pouches help adults quit smoking, as Imperial claims.
“We still have 4 to 5 million adult smokers in Canada. Many want more help to quit, but I tell you many of them will stay away from this product because it is branded and marketed as something that a child would use, rather than as a therapeutic tool,” he said.
According to Hammond, more data is needed to keep track of developments in the tobacco industry.
“It’s a very tricky area to play whack-a-mole … for any government,” he said.
“We need to get past this stage where the industry throws away products and we only notice something a year or two later.”
