New York’s legislature flirted with a ban on flavoured nicotine pouches this spring but backed away after business owners, doctors, and smokers warned the move would do more harm than good.
The bill’s sponsors, Assembly member Linda Rosenthal and Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, could not get enough support after their colleagues heard evidence that adult smokers rely on pouches such as Zyn to quit cigarettes.
Ottawa should study that reversal and copy it.
Nicotine pouches deliver controlled doses of nicotine without burning tobacco.
Health Canada approved Zonnic in July 2023 as a natural‑health product precisely because it helps smokers transition away from combustible cigarettes.
But less than a year later, Ottawa yanked pouches off convenience store shelves, ordered them behind pharmacy counters, and banned every flavour except mint and menthol.
That decision turns a powerful quit aid into a hidden item you can only find if you already know to ask a pharmacist for it.
Smokers can pick up cigarettes every time they pay for gas or a lottery ticket, yet the tool that could help them stub out their last cigarette is hidden away at pharmacies.
Look across the Atlantic.
Sweden is the world’s first “smoke‑free” nation, defined as fewer than five percent of adults who smoke.
A full two decades ahead of the European Union’s 2040 target.
The driving force?
Not sweeping bans, but harm‑reduction products.
One-in-five Swedish adults now uses nicotine pouches or snus, and surveys show pouches are the number‑one method Swedes cite when explaining how they quit.
Public health math is simple: when smokers switch to a nicotine‑only product, their exposure to tar, carbon monoxide, and thousands of combustion toxins drops to near zero.
That is why Sweden’s lung cancer and heart disease rates now trail those of almost every other European nation.
Ottawa says its August 2024 clamp down keeps pouches from teens.
The intent is noble.
However, youth should not use any nicotine product.
Yet there is scant evidence that teens were buying pouches in droves.
New York lawmakers heard data showing adolescent use “doesn’t register” in surveys, which is one reason why the proposed ban collapsed.
Canada never released comparable numbers before slamming the brakes on nicotine pouches.
Instead, the federal government has boxed adult smokers into a cruel choice, either keep lighting up or plan a special trip to a pharmacy and hope the counter staff have Zonnic in stock.
The extra steps required to purchase Zonnic include time, travel, and awkward questions from a pharmacist about their smoking habits, only nudging many would be quitters right back to the cigarette rack at their gas station.
Ask any addiction specialist, quitting succeeds when alternatives are immediate, affordable, and satisfying.
Convenience stores meet all three criteria.
They already handle age‑restricted products, from beer to lottery scratchers.
Enforcing “19+ ID” for pouches is no harder than for cigarettes.
The Business Council of New York made that point when it lobbied against a pouch ban. They said tighten up the point‑of‑sale checks, don’t rip tools off the market.
Ottawa could adopt the same playbook, with mandatory age scanners, mystery‑shopper audits, and stiff fines, while keeping pouches where smokers buy their cigarettes.
Prohibition rarely ends well. Remember Al Capone?
New York trade groups warned lawmakers that outlawing pouches would create an unregulated grey market.
Canada risks the same outcome from cross‑border courier packages, illicit online sales, and street‑corner vendors.
Unchecked supplies won’t carry Health Canada warnings, dosage limits, or ingredient controls.
Keeping pouches legal, visible, and taxed is the smarter route.
It protects consumers while preserving revenue Ottawa can spend on smoking cessation programs, outreach, and indigenous‑led tobacco reduction initiatives.
The core question is simple.
If transferring nicotine from smoked tobacco to oral pouches cuts disease risk by a significant amount, why make that switch harder?
Sweden’s smoke‑free status is not theoretical; hospital wards and funeral homes are already seeing the benefits.
Canada’s smoking rate, stuck around 12%, won’t drop to Swedish levels by preaching abstinence alone.
Health Canada’s own framework for nicotine replacement therapies urges easy access because every quit attempt counts.
Moving pouches behind pharmacy counters undercuts that strategy.
Restoring legal sales in convenience stores, alongside strict ID enforcement, plain packaging rules, and a nicotine‑strength cap, would strike a better balance between youth protection and adult harm reduction.
By shelving its ban, New York signalled that public health is best served by widening, not narrowing, the lower‑risk nicotine replacement therapies for adults.
Ottawa should heed that lesson, lift the pharmacy‑only rule, and let nicotine pouches compete directly with cigarettes where it matters most.
The convenience store.
Sweden’s success shows the destination; New York’s pragmatism shows the path.
Canada can still reverse course.
It starts by putting the safest nicotine option back where smokers can actually see it.