It began with an RV, a camera, and a cross-country mission to answer a simple question: what does Canada’s nicotine pouch market actually look like two years after the federal government restricted legal sales to pharmacies? The team from Rights4Vapers (R4V), a safer-nicotine advocacy group, expected to find a market constrained by regulation. What they […]
Canada’s Pouch Policy: A Masterclass in Creating a Black Market Read More »
I have been travelling across Canada to take a real look at the illegal nicotine pouch market. The journey started in Montreal, and over the course of the week, we landed in Saskatchewan. Every province is different. Some are brazen (like Ontario). Manitoba has too much demand to keep up with supply. And, in Saskatchewan,
Health Canada denies that the 2024 ministerial order has contributed to the growth of the black market for nicotine pouches. OTTAWA — A nicotine users’ rights group is calling on Ottawa to loosen restrictions on nicotine pouches, after uncovering a booming illicit market in a cross-country road trip. Members of Rights 4 Vapers purchased 148 illegal
A cross-country road trip uncovered a booming illicit nicotine pouch market Read More »
Two years after Ottawa restricted legal nicotine pouches to pharmacies, ten-day road trip finds a rampant illegal market. TORONTO, Aug. 24, 2026 /CNW/ — After ten days on the road, thousands of kilometres and stops in communities from Montreal to Edmonton, the Rights4Vapers (R4V) team has reached a clear conclusion: restricting legal nicotine pouches to pharmacies has not made
Dear Minister Michel, We are writing to you not as advocates, not as Canadians with an agenda, but as human beings speaking to another human being. Because at the heart of this conversation, that’s what this is really about. Real Canadians. You are one of the millions of Canadians who smoke. We and the others
An Open Letter to Marjorie Michel Read More »
Dear Minister Michel, I am writing to you today to address the theatrical performance that was held in the West Block on Friday, by government-funded tobacco control leaders where they made claims that 50,000 high school students have started vaping since you took office and uses that figure to call for a national ban on
Our Letter to Minister Michel in response to that press conference Read More »
COBOURG, ON – Rights 4 Vapers (R4V), Canada’s leading consumer movement for safer nicotine products, is raising urgent concerns about Bill 24, Vaping Product Damages and Health-Care Costs Recovery Act, legislation that gives the Province of British Columbia sweeping, undefined power to sue anyone connected to vaping products. Despite offering zero proof that regulated vaping
Consumer Advocates Warn Bill 24 Is a Blank Cheque for Neverending Lawsuits Read More »
Subject: Bill 24 and the Danger of Legislating Misinformation Dear Premier Eby, Attorney General Sharma, and Members of the Legislative Assembly, My name is Maria Papaioannoy, and I am writing to you not only as a Canadian who vapes but as the founder of Rights 4 Vapers, Canada’s largest consumer movement dedicated to educating and
Sometimes, a law isn’t just a law. Sometimes, it’s a warning. And this is a warning. British Columbia’s new Bill, Vaping Products Damages and Health Care Recovery Act is being celebrated as a way to “make industry pay.” But when you dig deeper, you see something far more troubling: a government arming itself with extraordinary
When Laws Go Too Far: The Vaping Cost Recovery Act and the Erosion of Fairness Read More »
British Columbia’s new Vaping Products Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery Act is being sold as a way to make vaping companies pay for health-care costs. Our first question is exactly how is vaping costing the provincial health care system? We would argue that vaping is saving the health care system millions in smoking-related costs.
Stop the insanity. Vaping reduces health costs; not causes them. Read More »