Ottawa to reveal details of nicotine pouch crackdown in ‘coming days’: Minister
Global News
Last November, Mark Holland vowed to close the regulatory "loophole" allowing the flavoured nicotine pouches to be sold in convenience stores across the country.
Less than a week after B.C. restricted the sale of flavoured “nicotine pouches” in a bid to keep them away from kids, the federal government has confirmed its own action on the oral pouch products is coming soon.
Federal Health Minister Mark Holland said Monday the details of that announcement will be released “in the coming days.” He credited B.C. for its leadership on the products, which are new to the Canadian market.
“I think it’s entirely appropriate that these products be moved behind counter,” Holland said at an unrelated funding announcement in Vancouver.
“What we don’t want to see happen is frankly what with saw with vaping, where we had a whole new cohort of young people becoming addicted to nicotine, who weren’t smokers, and were using this as a new delivery mechanism for nicotine.”
Last week, B.C. introduced regulations that put all buccal nicotine pouch products behind the counter at pharmacies. While no prescription is required to access them, it means they’re no longer easily accessible on shelves at convenience stores, gas stations and other locations where tobacco products are sold within the province.
The products, which contain no tobacco, are approved by Health Canada and are currently sold without advertising restrictions in convenience stores elsewhere across the country.
Last November, Holland vowed to close the regulatory “loophole” allowing that, stating he felt “duped” into believing the pouches would be marketed purely as a smoking cessation tool.
“It would seem that their intention is to addict new young people to nicotine, which is disgusting,” Holland said at the time, referencing some of the pouches’ flavours, without mentioning a specific company.
Bundle up — that's the advice from Environment Canada after it issued extreme cold warnings for the Prairie provinces for the next two days.
After two years of not being able to fully open, the skateway on Ottawa's Rideau Canal is again the centre of celebrations for Ottawa's Winterlude festival.
An Alberta wildlife photographer and conservationist is calling for changes to the province's cougar hunting laws after a female cougar with kittens was killed near Canmore.
After surviving a life-threatening heart infection and undergoing emergency surgery, an Ontario man is celebrating both his recovery and his birthday on Valentine’s Day.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the quake happened just before 10 p.m. between Victoria and Port Angeles, Wash., on Thursday.
Alcohol causes 800,000 deaths across Europe each year but just a fraction of the population is aware of the risks, the WHO's Europe office said.
A massive effort is underway in the Bow Valley, west of Calgary, to protect the area from a similarly disastrous that hit the town of Jasper, Alberta in the summer of 2024.
More than 2.77 million students were impacted by the PowerSchool data breach, according to numbers provided by multiple school boards.
As cases of seasonal influenza surge, health officials are closely monitoring a growing threat—the potential fusion of human and bird flu strains.
Some hormonal birth control products, including the pill, vaginal ring and skin patch, may increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke, new research suggests.
As migratory birds return to Canada this spring, health officials are bracing for a potential surge in bird flu cases as many may be carrying the virus.
Zelenirstat, a cancer-fighting pill made in Alberta, may have the power to save lives — but millions more in clinical trial funding and donations are needed to make it a reality.