Two of Canada's largest convenience retailers are asking the Federal Court to strike down Health Canada's pharmacy-only rule for nicotine pouches. The hearings began Monday in Toronto before Justice Phuong T.V. Ngo.Alimentation Couche-Tard subsidiaries Mac's Convenience Stores and Couche-Tard Inc. filed one application in 2024. Parkland Corp., which operates On the Run stores, filed the other. Federal lawyers have asked the court to dismiss both.The Supplementary Rules Respecting Nicotine Replacement Therapies Order, in force since August 28, 2024, limits authorized nicotine pouches to mint and menthol, caps strength at four milligrams, and requires sale behind the pharmacy counter. Imperial Tobacco's Zonnic is still the only authorized brand.In arguments quoted in French, Couche-Tard's lawyers said nicotine replacement therapies "are not an inherent threat to public health — far from it," and that a supervised pharmacy supply is a provincial matter. Parkland's 2024 application, reported by The Canadian Press, says the limit will "have the effect of increasing — not decreasing — the risk of injury to health.".Federal lawyers wrote that "non-therapeutic nicotine use is associated with addiction, toxicity and significant physical and mental health harms — risks to which children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable." Former federal health minister Mark Holland cited "recreational use by people who do not smoke, and, in particular, youth under 18 years of age."Health Canada's impact assessment estimated pharmacists' extra time at about $1.7 million over 10 years, present value, and warned that people far from a pharmacy "may incur extra travel costs" or "may revert to tobacco/vaping use."In March 2026, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally told Prime Minister Mark Carney, "When a regulated alternative is more difficult to access than cigarettes, it sends the wrong signal and complicates efforts by adults working to lessen their dependence."If the judge sides with the retailers, "each province will have to decide for itself," the Canadian Cancer Society's Rob Cunningham told Radio-Canada. Quebec and British Columbia already limited sales to pharmacies. The 2024 order remains in force.
