There are a lot of questions around whether e-cigarettes are a gateway to tobacco use. There are Canadian studies that say that longitudinally, when we look at a cohort of young Canadians, those who try e-cigarettes are more likely to initiate tobacco use a year later. There's still a lot that needs to be known, though.
What we are concerned about is whether, when nicotine becomes legal in e-cigarettes, these youth will now have a nicotine addiction. Will this even further increase rates that we're already seeing grow year by year?
In relation to flavours, we want to make sure there isn't a wide range of flavours, such as cotton candy, Hello Kitty, cherry, or whatever it might be. We want things that are appealing to adult smokers, but not youth; we want to make sure that youth in general don't see marketing of these cigarettes, because it might lead to tobacco use later on.