Liberal Leader Mark Carney is out to prove he’s a centrist. By ending unpopular Trudeau-era policies like the capital gains tax hike and the consumer carbon tax, Carney is clearly making a play for the political middle. 

If Carney really wants Canadian consumers to believe he’s moved to the middle, it’s time for the Liberals to embrace evidenced-based policies. That includes pivoting away from the last government’s approach to nicotine pouches. 

Former health minister Mark Holland banned certain flavours of nicotine pouches and restricted the sale of pouches that are still allowed to be sold to being behind pharmacy counters. 

From a harm-reduction standpoint, these moves make zero sense. 

First, policy makers should want smokers to make the shift from smoking cigarettes to cessation products like nicotine pouches. If including more flavours encourages that transition, it simply doesn’t make sense to block it. 

Plus, Nicorette, which is yet another smoking cessation product,comes in gums, lozenges and sprays and offers a variety of flavours, including mint, fresh fruit, cool berry and mild spearmint.

Why allow Nicorette to come in all kinds of flavours but ban most of those flavours for pouches? The U.S. Federal Drug Administration sensibly took the opposite approach and approved 20 flavours of nicotine pouches.  

Second, under present rules, folks can still buy cigarettes at virtually every corner store and gas station, but they’ve got to go to a pharmacy to buy a product that actually helps smokers quit and significantly reduces harm for users. 

Why allow cigarettes to be sold at gas stations and corner stores but not nicotine pouches? 

It’s important to remember that it’s combusting tobacco, not nicotine, that is having such a damaging impact on Canadians’ health. If Canadian consumers want to be able to purchase products with nicotine instead of buying cigarettes, it simply doesn’t make sense to make it easier for consumers to access more harmful products than smoking cessation tools. 

Critics of nicotine pouches argue that pouches are a gateway to smoking. However, the evidence simply doesn’t bear that out. 

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment found that pouches have very limited appeal (11-12%) to people who have never consumed tobacco products before, including minors. 

Among smokers, by contrast, or those who chew tobacco, interest in nicotine pouches  increases to 75%. 

This shouldn’t be a shocking statistic: most smokers spend decades trying to quit. Given that pouches offer a possible off-ramp that is far less risky for one’s health than smoking, it makes perfect sense that smokers would be highly interested in nicotine pouches. 

At the same time, the German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment also found that nicotine pouches carry little risk and are just as risky as other forms of cessation tools, including nicotine patches, gums and sprays. According to that assessment, nicotine pouches are 99% less harmful than cigarettes.  

Pouches are less risky than smoking and the vast majority of those interested in nicotine pouches are those who presently smoke. These products should be made easier for folks to access, not harder. And yet that’s exactly the approach that the Trudeau government took under Holland as health minister. 

Then there’s the risk of the black market: If consumers are determined to access nicotine pouches to help them quit smoking, there’s every risk that scores of Canadians will turn to the black market. Contraband tobacco is a huge issue in Canada. Why encourage consumers to seek out the black market for smoking cessation products? The black market allows for zero government regulation, whereas the government could enact sensible regulations regarding nicotine pouches by treating them as smoking cessation tools. 

Carney wants Canadians to believe he’s a middle-ground, evidence-based politician bringing the Liberals back to the middle of the political spectrum. If that’s true, Carney should take a hard look at the previous Liberal government’s approach to nicotine pouches and prioritize smoking cessation by making these products easier — not harder — to access. 

Originally published here