I apologize.
I will just tell you that there are other products on the market that are sold at convenience stores beside the candy counter. They don't look like a pill. They don't look like a treatment. They look like something interesting. The other products that are on the market, the gums, do not seem to be a problem, and we have not called for new precision regulations to be placed on them, but we need the power to intervene if they were, if children were experimenting with them or if they became an on-road to nicotine addiction instead of people using them in the bar or somewhere instead of smoking. If there were reasons to have concerns about them, we would like the government to have the authority to come in.
In the U.S., the same product made by the same company is sold with the disclaimer that it is not an FDA-approved smoking cessation aid and it's not intended to be used to quit smoking, but, in Canada, the same product is sold as a smoking cessation aid. In the United States, it's sold as a way to enhance focus, boost your energy or relax.
Other tobacco companies that are licensed to sell NHP nicotine in Canada include Swisher Sweets Cigar Company and a Philip Morris International subsidiary. Turning Point Brands is a cannabis-focused company that has a licence also to sell NHP nicotine in Canada.
The ingredients of a drug product are only part of the risk. From a clinical perspective, nicotine replacement is a well-established treatment for tobacco addiction. It doesn't seem to make much difference how that nicotine is delivered to the body but, from a public health perspective, it makes a world of difference how the product is delivered to the market. The business model of those who make it and distribute it, how it's advertised, who sees the advertisements, whether influencers are promoting it, etc. are the aspects that make the product risky. The supplementary rules that were adopted for Zonnic are mostly about marketing; they're not about the product itself.
One reason these supplementary rules took months to prepare is that new legislative powers were required. These powers were part of the spring budget. Bill C-368 would take those legislative powers away, not only for Zonnic but for all the other smoking cessation products manufactured by tobacco companies or others for whom the clinical benefits risk being overshadowed by the overall health risks to Canadians.
The Food and Drugs Act was not designed to manage tobacco companies. Last week, I heard other witnesses being asked about consultation on the authorization. There is no consultation with any outside group when the department decides on whether to authorize an NHP. As I understand it, each application is confidentially reviewed against established clinical criteria, not public health criteria, and is decided on without input from other stakeholders or any public health impact analysis.
Canada is lacking an overall nicotine regulatory framework. The regulation and management of tobacco products and vaping products are in one branch of the department under one law and under a different minister than is NHP nicotine. This is a problem.
I think it would be wonderful if the committee could suggest to Health Canada that they start working on an integrated nicotine framework. The precision regulation was a bit of a band-aid solution, but it's a band-aid solution we urgently needed. It's a band-aid solution we continue to need. Until there's a more permanent solution in place, we implore you to not remove that and put Canadian children at additional risk.
Thank you.