Walk into a gas station today, and you can see Ottawa’s nicotine policy problem in real time. Right where Zonnic nicotine pouches used to sit, many stores now stock Nicorette gum.
Same idea. Same drug. Same goal.
Help smokers quit.
But only one product got the full crackdown.
Nicotine pouches were pushed out of gas stations and convenience stores in 2024 and forced behind pharmacy counters. Nicorette gum is still widely available in retail locations, the way it has been for decades. Health Canada even said so, noting that established cessation aids “will continue to be available in a wide range of retail locations.”
And here’s the kicker. There is no Canada-wide legal age check to buy nicotine gum.
That is not a guess or a talking point. The federal rules around nicotine replacement therapy focus on labelling, flavours, and youth-appeal advertising. They require a clear “18+ intended use” statement on labels, but they do not create a national age-verification system at the cash register. Unlike nicotine pouches that require age verification to purchase.
So, a teen can walk out with nicotine gum. But an adult smoker who wants a pouch has to find a pharmacy counter and hope the product is in stock.
At the exact moment Canada should be leaning into harm reduction, it is making the safer switch harder.
That matters, because smoking still kills more than 45,000 Canadians every year, according to Health Canada.
And this week is National Non-Smoking Week in Canada — a perfect time to ask whether our policies actually help people quit, or just make politicians feel virtuous.
Nicotine pouches should be treated as what they are, which is a harm-reduction tool for adults who would otherwise smoke.
No smoke. No ash. No second-hand cloud floating around the truck cab.
And while nicotine is addictive and not harmless, the biggest danger comes from burning tobacco and inhaling the toxic smoke. Remove the combustion, and you cut the risk dramatically.
Other countries are starting to speak plainly about that.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the marketing of ZYN nicotine pouch products in 2025 after scientific review. The FDA said the products have “substantially lower levels of harmful constituents” than cigarettes and found they can provide a benefit to adults who smoke and fully switch.
That is not “Big Tobacco spin.” That is a federal regulator weighing risks and benefits, with youth concerns on the table, and still concluding that pouches can help move smokers away from cigarettes.
The United Kingdom (UK) is heading the same direction. UK reporting this month described government officials acknowledging nicotine pouches are likely lower-risk than smoking and signalling they will be regulated as a distinct category.
Sweden is the case study Canada should stop ignoring.
Sweden’s Public Health Agency reported that in 2024, only 5.4% of people aged 16–84 smoked daily — among the lowest rates in Europe — while oral nicotine use remains common.
Sweden did not get there by banning alternatives and hoping for the best. It got there by letting adults move to products that do not involve lighting up a cigarette.
Canada, meanwhile, has created an odd, paternalistic system. One nicotine pouch product is authorized as nicotine replacement therapy and is intended to help adults quit smoking. Health Canada says authorized pouches should not be used recreationally and not by anyone under 18.
Fine. Most people agree youth should not be using nicotine in any form.
But Ottawa’s approach confuses “protect kids” with “make it hard for adults.”
Instead of treating pouches like a controlled, lower-risk option — sold to adults with strict rules on marketing and placement — it shoved them into a pharmacy-only corner and acted surprised when people looked online and bought them illegally.
That is not harm reduction. It is harm displacement.
A sensible conservative approach is straightforward.
First, keep the youth protections in place, including plain packaging, restrictions on youth-appeal promotion, and penalties for retailers who sell to minors.
Second, treat nicotine pouches like other age-restricted products. Put them back in licenced retail, including convenience stores, with real ID checks. The same system used for cigarettes.
Third, stop pretending that forcing adults to hunt for alternatives is a health strategy.
Canada does not need a new nicotine culture. It needs fewer smokers.
If the goal of National Non-Smoking Week is public health, then policy should follow the evidence even when the evidence points to a product some people do not like.