What’s Happening to Vaping in Canada?
The story of vaping in Canada is a bitter-sweet one. On the one hand, we have seen the popularity among the people. They love the fact that they now have an alternative to smoking. They have a wide variety of flavours to choose from. They can go from high nicotine to low levels of nicotine, and then give it up completely.
On the other hand, the government of Canada is taking decisive action against vaping. They say that vaping is one of the most dangerous things for the youth, even though youth smoking is at its lowest in Canada. Still, the government is pushing hard to pass a bill banning vape flavours. According to the government, vaping is causing nicotine addiction in the youth, causing significant harm to their health. They say that it is leading the youth towards tobacco use in various forms.
In 2021, Health Canada announced the new Nicotine Concentration in Vaping Products Regulations (NCVPR). According to this regulation, only those vaping products can be marketed in Canada with a maximum nicotine concentration of 20 mg/mL. NCVPR also prohibits the packaging and sale of any vaping products whose nicotine concentration exceeds 20 mg/mL.
What NCVPR is Expected To Do
With the new regulation in place, the Canadian government aims to restrict vaping and help reduce the number of vape users. Theoretically, it will keep new users from becoming curious about vaping and stop them before they even begin. Over time, this ban aims to make vaping less popular and less appealing. The government is heavily relying on the phrase, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
What Will Actually Happen
There’s a difference between wishful thinking and expected reality. The reality is that if someone wants to taste nicotine, they will now do that by using other ways. Now the youth will go back to the traditional ways of nicotine intake: cigarettes. The ratio of youth smoking will start rising, and they won’t have a safer alternate.
The people who were happy that they now had a way of giving up smoking altogether will go back to smoking once they don’t find suitable flavours and the proper nicotine concentration in the market.
Another harmful effect of the regulation is that the vaping business will be hard hit. Most of the business owners in this industry are small families. They have family-run stores where they sell flavours from different brands and also make flavours of their own. A ban on the vaping industry could mean thousands of people losing their jobs and sources of income. Most of the small business owners won’t be able to survive and will be forced to close the shops.
In Conclusion
As much as the government is concerned about the betterment of youth. Still, there are far more essential things to consider by the Canadian Government to make sure healthy survival of youth and families whose only means of earning is through selling vape products, including flavours and other items. Although there is no ban on tobacco-induced products, this could lead the old vape consumer to switch to the old traditional way of smoking, which is equally dangerous to health.
