It's interesting. Zonnic products are sold as Velo products in other parts of the world by British American Tobacco. They're sold as a recreational nicotine product. They're sold to youth. They're advertised on Formula One racing cars. They're advertised on social media. They receive very much the same kind of heavy promotion that cigarettes did in the last century.
The only reason they're sold as smoking cessation products in Canada is that it was the only route to the market available to the company. British American Tobacco could not sell them legally in Canada unless it could convince Health Canada they should be approved as an NHP. This happened not under the current health minister, but the previous one. When we asked the department why it let this go through, it was explained to us that the whole process of approval is very depoliticized, that there is very little potential for the minister to intervene, and that these are scientific assessments done by a board that looks only at the evidence.
Truthfully, this is not my area. I'm just reporting this as hearsay—