A recent article has revealed that Canada’s Health Minister Marjorie Michel is not considering changing the rules that restrict the sale of nicotine pouches in Canada. I would say this is disappointing, but at this point, it’s actually just irresponsible.
I hope the Minister’s officials have shown her the stats: Sweden is the world’s first smoke-free country because of their promotion of Snus and nicotine pouches, nicotine pouches are 99% less harmful as a smoker than smoking cigarettes, and it’s a great and effective way to quit smoking.
Moreover, the longer this restriction on pouches remains, the illicit market will continue to grow. And yet, she maintains that overturning these restrictions is not on the table.
While Canadians can go to any convenience store or gas station to buy their cigarettes, they still have to go to some (not all) pharmacies to see if they can ask the pharmacist if they can buy some pouches (only one brand at 4mgs and restricted flavours) as if they are doing something illicit. This is irresponsible if you want to see Canadians actually quit smoking, rather than simply talk in platitudes about how bad smoking is for you and why you really, really should just quit already.
Minister Michel should know that quitting cold turkey is not that easy, and that Canadians deserve what their friends in Sweden have: a government that actually wants them to succeed in their journey of quitting cigarettes. Canadians also want to feel safe in their communities, and that is not going to happen if the rules keep allowing for more illicit markets, and more violence by the criminal gangs who are making a huge profit off of these rules.
It’s the old baptist and bootlegger problem: those who feel they have the moral highground, like the organizations listed in this news article, are encouraging the Minister to keep these rules because…well, I’m no longer sure what their goal is other than to ban for banning’s sake given the clear benefits of pouches for those who want to quit smoking. Meanwhile, the bootleggers must be huge fans of these restrictions as well, because the longer they remain, the more money they will make from selling illicit pouches on the black market.
Reversing her former colleague’s terrible decision to restrict pouches to behind pharmacy counters ought to be top of mind for a Minister that is supposed to do what’s best for Canadians’ health, but all we are getting is more uncertainty that only impedes the progress of those who want to quit smoking, and a bolstering of an already successful black market.
These days, Canada has been looking to Europe in many ways, and my hope is that we look to another European country, Sweden, when it comes to making the right choices for Canadian smokers. Canada has the potential to be the second ever smoke-free country in the world, but our policymakers don’t want to help, and many of Canada’s non-governmental organizations are getting paid by the government in order to lobby the government to keep the status quo.
Canada should have learned the hard lesson of how not to bolster a black market, and yet it continues to make the same mistakes. How many more people’s health will have to suffer before we realise what a huge mistake we have been making as a country by restricting tobacco harm reduction tools from being used by Canadians?