Maria Papaioannoy is a Canadian advocate and former smoker who has spent years advocating for practical approaches to reducing smoking-related harm. She regularly engages with policymakers and public health discussions surrounding safer nicotine alternatives in Canada. As the founder of R4V Canada, the largest consumer movement for safer nicotine products, Maria holds a unique and personal perspective in this space. Last week, CBC reported on an incident in Winnipeg where a kidnapping investigation uncovered an alleged underground market for illicit vaping products. While the criminal allegations are for the courts to determine, the story brings attention to something I have been yelling for almost a decade and something policymakers continue to ignore: when governments make legal nicotine products harder to access, demand doesn’t disappear. It moves underground, and illegal markets grow. For years, tobacco control groups have pushed for increasingly restrictive nicotine regulations in the name of protecting youth. Most recently, a small but well-funded coalition even set up "counting clock" imagery near Parliament to pressure the Minister of Health to ban vaping flavours nationwide. They used a ridiculous, biased equation (that only looks at 30-day past use) to make it seem like every single youth in this country is vaping, and that flavours are the only reason why.These same organizations also led the campaign against legal nicotine pouches, lobbying then-Minister of Health Mark Holland to impose sweeping restrictions through a Ministerial Order. The impact was immediate. Overnight, nicotine pouches intended to help adults quit smoking were moved behind pharmacy counters, making them significantly harder for adults to access.Within weeks of the order taking effect, Rights4Vapers volunteers were able to purchase more than $1,000 worth of illegal nicotine pouches in a single afternoon, all within a two-kilometre radius of the former Health Minister's constituency office. Since then, consumers and retailers have consistently reported that the illicit market has only continued to expand. If we're serious about evidence-based policy, we must evaluate outcomes, not just intentions..Our current policies have created an environment where illegal sellers can thrive. Illegal sellers don't collect taxes. They don't comply with Health Canada regulations. They don't follow manufacturing standards or retail rules. They often offer a wider range of products at higher nicotine levels and significantly lower prices than legitimate retailers. And they sell to youth. The problem isn't the consumer, and it isn’t legal retailers. The problem is a regulatory system that has made the illegal market more competitive than the legal one.Many of the organizations that pushed hardest for these restrictions have shown little willingness to acknowledge that some of the outcomes are the exact opposite of what they intended. There is no meaningful reflection on whether the policies themselves may have contributed to the growth of the illegal market. Instead, the answer is almost always another ban, another restriction, another barrier.Public policy shouldn't work that way. Good governments change course when the evidence changes. Unfortunately, in the nicotine debate, admitting a policy mistake has become politically more difficult than making one..That's why this month, Rights4Vapers is taking our questions directly to Canadians.Our Summer 2026 Road Trip will take us more than 3,000 kilometres across Canada, travelling from Montreal to Edmonton through communities large and small.We'll speak with consumers, retailers, elected officials, health professionals, and everyday Canadians. We'll document the availability of illegal nicotine products, examine the unintended consequences of current regulations, and ask a simple question: Is Canada's nicotine policy delivering the results it promised?We aren't travelling across the country to prove a point; we're travelling to document the evidence and let Canadians see the reality for themselves. Canadians deserve policies that are measured by outcomes, not intentions. The evidence is growing. It's time for our policies to evolve with it.Maria Papaioannoy is a Canadian advocate and former smoker who has spent years advocating for practical approaches to reducing smoking-related harm. She regularly engages with policymakers and public health discussions surrounding safer nicotine alternatives in Canada. As the founder of R4V Canada, the largest consumer movement for safer nicotine products, Maria holds a unique and personal perspective in this space.
