Policymakers across Canada should be rightly concerned about vapes falling into the hands of vulnerable youth. The illicit market is a growing problem across Canada, and many governments are stepping up to address that reality.
In their 2025 budgets, the governments of Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan all committed resources to crack down on contraband tobacco and the illicit market.
Yet in British Columbia, David Eby’s NDP government seems to be taking the opposite approach. Health Minister Niki Sharma recently introduced Bill 24, which would allow the B.C. government to fine and sue legal vape vendors.
Targeting legal vendors will only serve to encourage the illicit vape market to grow. What the government should be doing is cracking down on the illicit market to keep these products out of the hands of vulnerable youth.
Make no mistake: when in the hands of adult smokers, vapes save lives.
Vaping is a solution to a serious public health problem, which is the damage that is done to smokers by tobacco.
Studies have shown that vaping reduces the harm otherwise done by smoking cigarettes by some 95 per cent.
Governments should be encouraging smokers to transition to vaping. By threatening to fine and sue legal vape vendors, the B.C. government will make legal vapes harder to access and drive more activity to the black market, which is precisely where vulnerable youth obtain vapes in the first place.
Of course, those who break the law ought to be punished for doing so. What the B.C. government should be doing is pursuing legislation that keeps vapes out of the reach of vulnerable youth while still allowing smokers to access vapes as a crucial harm reduction tool. And that means cracking down on the illicit market.
Instead, legislation that targets legal vendors will only have the effect of driving those vendors out of the marketplace.
The end result could be precisely the opposite of what the B.C. government’s stated public policy goal is: to stop vapes from falling into the hands of kids. By potentially driving legal vape vendors out of B.C., the illicit market will only grow in size and scope. And that’s exactly where youth are able to get their hands on vaping products, because those who operate in the black market couldn’t care less about age verification.
Governments should be making it easier, not harder, for legal vape vendors to operate. The more that the market is dominated by legal vendors, the more likely it is that vapes can be kept out of the hands of youth. The smaller the legal market, the more likely it is that youth who want to obtain vapes will be able to do so.
Health Canada has been clear: “switching completely to vaping nicotine is less harmful than continuing to smoke.” It can also help support smoking cessation. Why, then, would the government, in this case Eby’s B.C. NDP government, want to stand in the way of smokers making the transition to vaping?
That is, in effect, what Bill 24 will do.
Threatening legal vendors also poses an economic threat. Legal vape sales contribute to the B.C. economy through both jobs and tax revenue. That tax revenue, in turn, can help to fund initiatives like community safety and public health.
Therefore, not only would Bill 24 make vaping more accessible to youth through taking a hatchet to the legal market, but it could also lead to a loss of jobs and tax revenue, which the government uses to help police the black market and ensure that money goes toward the public health system.
Fining and suing legal vape vendors won’t solve the black market issue. Governments, including Eby’s, should follow the lead of provinces like Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan and focus real resources on cracking down on the black market, which is where today’s youth are able to access vaping products. Only by cracking down on the black market can the issue of youth vaping truly be addressed.
Originally published here