Nine days. Thousands of kilometres. One important message:
Canadians deserve access to safer nicotine products.
to help cover fuel, campgrounds, and the costs of the journey.
and tell the government it’s time to Unlock the Pouch and restore adult access to legal nicotine pouches.
What is Summer Road Trip 2026?
Summer Road Trip 2026 is about finding answers. We’re travelling across Canada, visiting communities, speaking with Canadians, and documenting the growth of the illegal nicotine pouch market to explore what happens when legal products become unnecessarily difficult to access.
From August 14 to August 22, Rights 4 Vapers is taking the Unlock the Pouch campaign on the road.
In March of this year, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Dale Nally wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Minister of Health Marjorie Michel, urging the federal government to reverse the Ministerial Order introduced by former Health Minister Mark Holland.
That Ministerial Order moved legal nicotine pouches from retail stores to behind pharmacy counters, limiting access for adults who choose them as an alternative to smoking Just weeks after the order took effect, we bought over $1,000 worth of illegal nicotine pouches within two kilometres of Mark Holland’s office.
That letter sparked an idea.
What does the illicit nicotine pouch market look like between Minister Marjorie Michel’s office in Montreal and Minister Dale Nally’s office in Edmonton? Rather than relying on assumptions or anecdotes, we’ve decided to find out for ourselves. This road trip is our field research.
Our goal is to document what is happening across Canada and answer one important question:
Did this Ministerial Order unintentionally create a black market that has become too large to ignore?
With an RV, a camera, and a ragtag team of safer nicotine advocates, we’re hitting the road to investigate. We’ll visit communities across the country, document what we find, and we hope that you can follow along with us.
Links to follow:
The Road Diaries: Follow the journey. Find the answers.
