Retailers are challenging Health Canada’s regulations on nicotine pouches

Convenience store companies that operate thousands of stores across Canada are taking the federal government to court to invalidate regulations restricting the sale of nicotine pouches to pharmacies.

Mac’s Convenience Stores Inc. and Couche-Tard Inc., subsidiaries of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. based in Quebec, claim in their application to the Federal Court that Health Canada regulations restricting the sale of nicotine pouches to pharmacies are unfair and unconstitutional.

Parkland Corp., which operates convenience stores at gas stations under the On the Run brand, claims in its own lawsuit that limiting pharmacy-only sales will increase demand for illegal products “to which youth already have and will continue to have access.” access through the contraband market.”

Parkland argues that illegal nicotine replacement therapy products “are more dangerous than regulated products” and that regulations “will increase – not reduce – the risk of harm to health.”

Mac’s and Couche Tard’s application made a similar argument that since the Minister had not banned the sale of the products to minors, ordering their sale in pharmacies would “at best perpetuate the identified risk of harm” to people purchasing other forms of nicotine replacement therapy products or could increase the risk to people looking for their products on the black market.

Only one nicotine pouch product has been approved for sale by Health Canada – Imperial Tobacco’s Zonnic pouches.

A pouch is a small bag containing nicotine used in the mouth. According to Health Canada, Zonnic is a form of nicotine replacement therapy that can help you quit smoking by temporarily relieving cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

Mac’s Convenience Stores and the Montreal-based legal team of Couche Tard said their client would not comment on the lawsuit.

Simon Scott, vice president of corporate affairs at Parkland, said in a statement that the company’s stores have a “proven track record of responsibly and safely selling age-restricted products, including alcohol, tobacco products and lottery tickets. (Nicotine replacement therapies) are no different.”

Scott said removing them from convenience stores would not prevent youth from accessing them and would instead “impede access for adult customers who are trying to reduce their tobacco use.”

Health Canada declined to make anyone available for an interview due to the “complexity of the file.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Holland announced in August that sales of Zonnic sachets would be limited to pharmacies due to concerns about “recreational use by non-smokers, in particular by young people under 18 years of age.”

Holland’s ministerial order also banned advertising “that could appeal to young people” and limited nicotine pouch flavors to mint and menthol.

“Nicotine pouches with flavors such as Blueberry Frost and Tropical Breeze will not be allowed to be sold anywhere,” Holland told The Canadian Press in August. “I hope these products will be used for their intended purpose – to help people quit smoking – and stop the explosion of these products we are seeing among young people. “

Both Quebec and British Columbia restricted the sale of Zonnic bags before Holland’s order, allowing sales only in pharmacies behind the counter.

In a statement after the new restrictions were announced, Imperial Tobacco called Holland’s order “unprecedented.”

Eric Gagnon, the company’s vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs, said imposing rules on the company’s Zonnic handbags constitutes an “extreme abuse of power.”

“These rules do not apply to any other smoking cessation product, and singling out Zonnic is a personal attack on our company by Minister Holland and will only make it more difficult for adult smokers to quit,” Gagnon said.

Gagnon said the new regulations would lead to people buying illegal products widely available on the Internet.