Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
I am Flory Doucas, co-director and spokesperson for the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac. The mandate of the Quebec coalition for tobacco control is centred on reducing smoking and nicotine addiction. We therefore do not have a position on Bill C‑368 as a whole.
However, if the bill were to be adopted as is, it would severely undermine current federal efforts to protect youth from nicotine addiction. Bill C‑368 would cancel the supplementary rules respecting nicotine replacement therapies order, authorized last August under section 30.01 of the Food and Drugs Act, under which the Minister of Health can impose additional rules on therapeutic products by means of a ministerial order. This authority is what enabled the precise and tailored regulatory rules that address the potential harms resulting from the irresponsible promotion of nicotine-based therapeutic products that glamorizes and promotes their recreational use.
These measures were in response to the introduction to the Canadian market, in October 2023, of Zonnic, a nicotine pouch that was commercialized by Imperial Tobacco Canada and that was approved for sale by Health Canada as a natural product in July 2023. The promotion of Zonnic, with its brazen lifestyle advertising, bright colours and exotic flavours, such as Tropic Breeze and Berry Frost, clearly evoked themes like pleasure, lifestyle and youth. Images of young people in social settings populated these promotions, clearly painting aspirational lifestyles for youth.
Since the ministerial order issued last August, these nicotine replacement therapies, NRTs, remain available for smokers across the country, but across all provinces, they must be sold by a pharmacist and be kept behind the counter. They cannot be sold with flavours other than mint and menthol. They cannot be advertised in a way that is appealing to youth. They require a warning on addiction, and they cannot come in packaging that has youth appeal.
By amending the definition of therapeutic products in the Food and Drugs Act to exclude natural health products, Bill C-368 would eliminate the effect of these new regulations. The lack of federal measures would also serve to undermine stricter provincial regulations, such as those that exist in Quebec and in B.C., by creating enforcement challenges resulting from online interprovincial sales and promotions.
Should Bill C-368 be adopted without an amendment to carve out NRTs from its scope, Health Canada's current ability to enact mandatory recalls of NRT products when deemed necessary to prevent against injury would be eliminated. Health Canada would be prevented from vetting promotional materials before new products hit the market. Industry could roll out new NRTs with all kinds of flavours that could be enticing to youth.
The effects of adopting an unamended Bill C-368 would be felt beyond Zonnic pouches. There is actually a global corporate campaign to reframe nicotine as a more benign and ordinary consumer product akin to caffeine, with beneficial effects such as “helping adults to relax”, as Imperial Tobacco Canada states on its website.
Tobacco industry documents reveal that the introduction of novel nicotine products aims to compensate for decreasing smoking rates around the globe by creating addicts to new nicotine products. We've seen this with vaping. For this reason, the Quebec coalition, without endorsing either the adoption or the rejection of the proposed legislation, respectfully asks that, should Bill C-368 go forward, the Standing Committee on Health amend it to carve out nicotine products from its scope, as provided by the legislative text found on the first page of our written submission.
Nicotine is a drug that causes harm, not only through addiction, but also in terms of physical and mental health, especially among youth.
In a January 2024 policy brief, the World Heart Federation wrote, “For decades, the tobacco industry has promoted the myth that nicotine is as harmless as caffeine. Nonetheless, evidence shows that nicotine is far from innocuous, even on its own. In fact, numerous studies have demonstrated that nicotine can harm multiple organs, including the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.”
Meanwhile, numerous other scientific publications have confirmed how because their brain is still maturing, nicotine exposure during adolescence alters cognitive function and attention performance in youth.
Should Bill C‑368 go forward, it should be amended so as to carve out nicotine products.