{"id":510413,"date":"2026-03-02T23:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510413\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:49:16","slug":"good-health-policy-albertas-smith-calls-on-ottawa-to-relax-nicotine-pouch-rules-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510413\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Good health policy:&#8217; Alberta&#8217;s Smith calls on Ottawa to relax nicotine pouch rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alberta\u00a0Premier Danielle Smith is calling on Ottawa to walk back its restrictions on nicotine pouches, arguing the rules are a barrier for those trying to quit smoking.<\/p>\n<p>The pouches are sold behind the counter at pharmacies, and only one brand has been authorized for sale by Health Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Smith and one of her ministers say in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney that regular retail stores already sell age-restricted nicotine products and should be allowed to sell the pouches.<\/p>\n<p>The letter says federal policy coincided with growth of an unregulated black market for the pouches, which are tobacco-free.<\/p>\n<p>It says that may actually increase youth exposure rather than work to prevent it, like Ottawa aimed to do when it introduced the regulations in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Smith says her government believes it\u2019s \u201cgood health policy\u201d to make smoking cessation products more widely available.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel\u2019s office wasn\u2019t immediately able to comment.<\/p>\n<p>An impact assessment done as part of the federal regulations says growing popularity for pouches in the United States could be a factor pushing awareness and interest among Canadian youth.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta\u00a0Premier Danielle Smith is calling on Ottawa to walk back its restrictions on nicotine pouches, arguing the rules&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-510413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}