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When Health Canada forced nicotine pouches behind pharmacy counters last year, Kaden Desmarais did what many users have done ever since: get creative.
The 26-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., started buying oral pouches from online sellers — or driving to nearby Indigenous reserves to buy them there.
“I think it’s one of the most confusing and braindead laws,” Desmarais told Canadian Affairs via text message.
“We are legally allowed to import up to 40 tins of 4 mg and under for personal use from other countries, but can’t buy a single tin at a gas station?”
Desmarais is referring to Health Canada rules that require small-dose nicotine pouches to be sold by pharmacists within pharmacies.
These rules were introduced last August, a year after Health Canada first approved Zonnic to be sold as a natural health product and nicotine replacement therapy for adults who smoke. Zonnic, which is sometimes referred to as Zyn, is currently the only nicotine pouch authorized for sale in Canada.
The agency’s rules also restrict pouch flavours to mint or menthol, and effectively require them to be under 4 mg to avoid being regulated as prescription drugs.
Desmarais and others say these rules have had the perverse effect of making it easier to buy cigarettes than to buy products to quit smoking, and have led to many buyers seeking out unapproved products elsewhere.
“Pouches and nicotine shouldn’t be demonized the way they are,” said Desmarais, who started using pouches two years ago after vaping made his lungs feel “heavy.” He says nicotine pouches have helped him cut back on nicotine and manage his ADHD symptoms.
“The challenge is the accessibility,” said Eric Gagnon, vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Imperial Tobacco Canada, which sells Zonnic.
“It doesn’t make sense in a country like Canada that it’s easier to buy a pack of cigarettes than it is to buy a cessation product approved by Health Canada.”
Pouches as therapy
When it approved the sale of Zonnic in 2023, Canada became one of the first countries in the world to license nicotine pouches specifically for use as a stop-smoking aid.
Zonnic’s authorization followed a two- to three-year review process, says Gagnon. “We had to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Zonnic as a cessation product,” he said.
At first, Zonnic was sold in gas stations and corner stores, alongside other products such as gums and lozenges. And like other nicotine replacement products, pouches were not subject to federal tobacco and vaping legislation, which restricts how products can be advertised and accessed by youth.
The product quickly found an enthusiastic customer base in Canada, says Gagnon. Imperial Tobacco collected “thousands of testimonials” from adult smokers who said they quit with the help of pouches, he says. Imperial Tobacco Canada says it also observed cigarette sales falling faster in convenience stores that stocked Zonnic.
But public health groups, such as cancer and heart organizations, were soon warning against flavoured pouches being sold in convenience stores without age checks.
“Have we not learned our lessons from e-cigarettes?” Cynthia Callard, then-executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, said in a November 2023 press release.
“Given the increase in youth vaping, how is it possible that Health Canada would allow a new category of nicotine product on the market, sold by a tobacco company, with massively inadequate regulations in place? How can it possibly be legal to sell to children flavoured nicotine products from a tobacco company?”
Health Canada’s August 2024 order forcing pouches to be sold within pharmacies was a response to these concerns.
Today, the Canadian Pharmacists Association’s guidance for pharmacists describes nicotine pouches as short-acting nicotine replacement therapies that may be a low-risk option for smokers who are unable to quit using other methods. The guidance stresses that pouches should not be used by people who do not already smoke.
Gagnon says Imperial Tobacco accepts that pharmacists are “important partners” in smoking cessation.
But he says the behind-the-counter rule goes too far — and unfairly targets Zonnic because it is produced by Imperial Tobacco Canada, a subsidiary of global tobacco giant British American Tobacco.
“The entire NRT category is basically over the counter,” he said. “The only product that is treated differently … is Zonnic. And probably because it has been distributed by Imperial Tobacco Canada, it was regulated differently.”
Grey markets
Health Canada’s rules are also prompting some Canadians to seek legal — or illegal — workarounds.
Federal rules permit Canadians to personally import a 90-day supply of nicotine pouches for their own use.
Desmarais, of Kelowna, says he buys pouches at pharmacies, but will also purchase them from vape shops, Indigenous reserves and online stores to access a greater selection of products.
Gagnon says sales through unauthorized channels bolsters organized crime.
“Often, when you will see seizures of nicotine products, it’s going to come with fentanyl, cocaine [and] illegal arms,” he said. “It’s a network of organized crime that is leveraging nicotine to fund other criminal activities.”
Ottawa says it is pushing back against unauthorized sales.
“Since August 2024, Health Canada has managed more than 300 compliance cases related to the sale/advertising of unauthorized nicotine pouch products at various retailers, such as vape shops, convenience stores and online sellers,” a department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Health Canada personnel have issued compliance notices, conducted onsite visits, seized products and alerted consumers of the risks.
“Much of the product available on the Canadian marketed [sic] is imported, and so to prevent unauthorized nicotine products from reaching the public, Health Canada also works closely with the Canada Border Services Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and provincial and territorial public health units,” the spokesperson said.
Desmarais says it is difficult to reconcile the government’s heavy-handed approach to pouches with its approach to the drug crisis he sees in his hometown.
The government’s approach to nicotine pouches is “almost beyond incompetence,” he said. “All while B.C. has drug-use sites and paraphernalia vending machines, and has decriminalized hard drugs. Cities are being turned into zombie farms, and Kelowna has only gotten worse.”
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