Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Health Minister, Marjorie Michel, has reportedly denied rumours that the Liberal government intends to drop a Trudeau-era commercial ban on nicotine pouches but admits that the ban isn’t stopping contraband products from entering Canada online.
When asked about reports that the Carney government might relax some of its nicotine pouch restrictions at the beginning of the month, Health Canada did not respond to Juno News’ requests for comment. Similarly, on Friday, Juno News requests to confirm the reports were ignored.
According to a Canadian Press article released Wednesday, however, Michel said she’s not considering changing regulations restricting nicotine pouch sales, despite her agency’s study showing that some Canadians have used the products to successfully quit smoking tobacco.
The now over-two-year-old ban restricting the commercial sale of nicotine pouches relegates the product often used as a smoke-cessation tool to pharmacy sales, which critics argue makes nicotine pouches less legally available.
Michel reportedly said she was not “considering” returning the ability to sell nicotine pouches to convenience store owners but acknowledged that nicotine pouches such as Zyn’s were still prevalent in the Canadian market despite the ban.
She also noted that the “failure to enforce” the regulations puts Carney’s government in a “very tricky situation” and opens the door to “weakening regulations,” but insists that that flaw in the system is what “industry” exploits.
Former RCMP experts on contraband tobacco have warned that blanket bans on tobacco products widen black markets where health regulations are lacking and the proceeds of which often fund organized crime.
People are shooting heroin in every downtown. Anarchotyranny, the law abiding is terrorized with laws, the law ignoring has no laws. They'll ticket you for speeding, but ignore you for selling drugs.