Canada’s health minister, Mark Holland, delivered a powerful message on Wednesday to tobacco companies attempting to market nicotine pouches to children: “Stay the hell away from our kids.”
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Holland argued that flavoured nicotine pouches are attracting young Canadians into a dangerous addiction and emphasized the need for stringent regulations to protect the youth from the harmful effects of tobacco products.
“I am seeking authority to restrict products so they are solely for the purposes of cessation,” he said. “We shouldn’t see flavours that are targeting kids, flavours like ‘Winter Berry Splash.’ We all see through it, we all what the intention is, and it’s over.
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“Whatever dark corner the tobacco industry crawls and creeps into to go after our children, whatever loophole they think they can find, they will meet me like an iron wall.”
Nicotine pouches, positioned between the upper lip and gum, resemble Swedish-style snus but lack the tobacco leaf. They are typically used as a smokeless alternative to traditional tobacco products.
On Oct. 12, Health Canada approved the sale of flavoured nicotine pouches from Imperial Tobacco, called Zonnic. According to the press release from the company, the product is a pouch that can help adult smokers quit by delivering nicotine to the body.
However, Holland argued that flavoured pouches serve no purpose in aiding adults to quit smoking. He said he firmly believes that these products only serve to entice children into tobacco use.
Expressing his concern, he emphasized the necessity of immediate restrictions on flavoured pouches and stringent regulations on marketing practices targeting children.
He said he has written the provinces and territories to work with them on this regulation, which he says he will seek to do “imminently.”
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