Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation appreciates the opportunity to appear before this committee to discuss Bill C-368, an act to amend the Food and Drugs Act regarding natural health products.
Let me be clear. The Heart and Stroke Foundation is not against improved access to natural health products. I'm here today only to address the unintended consequence that this bill would have on the regulation of nicotine pouches and on other new and emerging nicotine products that could lure children and youth into nicotine addiction.
As it stands, the bill would exclude natural health products from the definition of therapeutic products. This change would be problematic because of its implications for the government's ability to regulate nicotine pouches and other nicotine replacement products, which are currently classified as natural health products. The Food and Drugs Act applies only to therapeutic products, so if natural health products are no longer classified as therapeutic products, there would be no act under which the government could regulate all these products. This is a gap that leaves our youth especially vulnerable.
In August 2024, Health Canada adopted the supplementary rules respecting nicotine replacement therapies order. It includes many provisions intended to keep nicotine pouches out of the hands of young people, such as requiring nicotine pouches to be sold in pharmacies only and to be placed behind the counter, banning flavour descriptors that can be appealing to youth and only allowing mint and menthol flavours, adding health warnings to the nicotine pouch packaging, and banning advertising, packaging and labelling that can be appealing to young people.
Prior to this, the unregulated sale of nicotine pouches such as Zonnic posed a danger to young people in Canada. As health advocates, we are long familiar with the methods of the tobacco industry and how it uses tactics to hook young people onto its products. First, it was cigarettes and chewing tobacco. Then it was vaping. Now it's nicotine pouches that risk addicting a whole new generation.
We know that nicotine is one of the most addictive substances on earth. It affects adolescent brain development, particularly the parts of the brain that control learning, attention, mood and impulse. We now have important measures in place to protect young people from these harmful products that research has shown to be potential gateways for future use of vaping and tobacco products. However, these measures are currently being threatened by Bill C-368.
To conclude, I urge the committee members to support an amendment to the bill that would address the concerns that have been raised by health groups, especially with regard to nicotine products. We urge you to keep in place the supplementary rules respecting nicotine replacement therapies order. No one was prepared for the aggressive marketing that the tobacco industry would use to target our teens, and now we have some of the highest teen vaping rates in the world. We can't repeat this mistake with nicotine pouches. Children and youth deserve to be protected from the predatory tactics of the tobacco industry, which is now trying to skirt the rules with nicotine pouches and other nicotine replacement products.
Thank you.