MP BAILEY: Liberal War on Nicotine Pouches
The Liberal war on nicotine pouches is not about safety, it’s about control from a government that can’t make sense of its own absurd double standard.
By: Burton Bailey, MP Red Deer
The Liberal war on nicotine pouches is not about safety, it’s about control from a government that can’t make sense of its own absurd double standard.
Nicotine pouches are small, tobacco-free microfiber packets containing pharmaceutical-grade nicotine. There is no smoke, no combustion, no inhalation, and no spitting. They are used around the world as a tool to quit smoking.
Sweden proved this: By embracing snus and later nicotine pouches, the country slashed smoking to 5.4% in 20241—far below the WHO’s less than 20% benchmark it hit back in 2000. Sweden now has the lowest rates of lung cancer and tobacco-related disease in Europe.2
Canada’s own Tobacco Strategy aims for less than 5% tobacco use by 2035. Current smoking rates in Canada hover around 11%.3 Yet the same government that set that ambitious target is doing everything to keep cigarettes (and the tax revenue that comes with it) available, while deliberately making alternatives almost impossible to buy legally.
Here’s the absurdity:
Cigarettes (the deadliest nicotine product): sold openly at every corner store and gas station. Multiple brands, easy access after showing ID.
Nicotine pouches (tobacco-free, non-combusted, acknowledged by Health Canada itself to be far less harmful): restricted to pharmacies, behind the counter, only one brand legally available, and ironically, the pharmacist isn’t even required to check ID.
The federal government originally approved nicotine pouches for sale in convenience stores. Then former Health Minister Mark Holland tried to score political points by declaring companies would “meet him like an iron wall”4 and abruptly reversed the decision, banning pouches to behind pharmacy counters.
Even pharmacists themselves don’t understand this backwards logic.5
Keep in mind, this is the same government that approves fentanyl injection sites under the disguise of “harm reduction” next to schools, playgrounds, or daycares. So much for protecting youth, right?
The result is predictable: a booming black market. Canadians who want any choice at all simply order them online. Untaxed, unregulated, and with zero age controls. The government’s “protect the children” excuse collapses the moment you realize these products are widely available illegally and unsafely.
Even Liberal-appointed health officials know their laws don’t make sense. When I pressed the Deputy Health Minister at committee, he reluctantly admitted that nicotine pouches are safer than smoking.6
If the federal government really wants to lower smoking rates in Canada, the bottom line is that it should be just as easy to purchase nicotine pouches as it is to buy a pack of smokes.
So why is the government waging war on the very products that could help it reach its own 2035 target?
Like most policy decisions of the Liberal government over the past 10 years, it’s all politics. This has little to do with health and a lot to do with control.
Canadians should have the freedom to choose to quit smoking, and the federal government shouldn’t stand in their way of making healthier choices.
It’s common sense.
Sources:
1 Use of tobacco and nicotine products - The Public Health Agency of Sweden
3 Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey (CTNS): summary of results for 2022 - Canada.ca
4 ‘Stay the hell away from our kids’: Minister slams nicotine pouches, seeks regulation - National | Globalnews.ca
5 Opinion: Pharmacist advocates for easier access to nicotine pouch | Calgary Herald
6 Burton Bailey on X: “BREAKING Health Canada ADMITS nicotine pouches are SAFER than cigarettes – but makes it easier to buy cigarettes so the government can make money. They REFUSE to reverse the Liberal BAN of pouch sales to pharmacies, while cigarettes are sold everywhere. Make it make sense. https://t.co/bgp1FPBeZg” / X
Better to smoke than have a phone addiction. I don't smoke, but it reduces stress, folks have a chat. Same with drinking at a bar, better psychologically than staying home alone.