Vaping is so 2021. These days, nicotine pouches are the vice of choice for many teens, and health experts are warning that it’s a serious problem.
Driving the news: A coalition of health advocacy groups, including the Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation, are calling on Ottawa to create stricter regulations for nicotine pouches over concerns around their surging popularity with teens, per The Globe and Mail.
Catch up: Last month, Health Canada approved the launch of Zonnic, a small pouch made by Imperial Tobacco, containing up to 4mg of nicotine and billed as a way to help smokers kick their habit.
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Zonnic comes in the same fruity flavours like “tropic breeze” that have contributed to high teen vaping usage and is available for purchase in gas stations without any restrictions.
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The group of health advocates say products like Zonnic are heavily marketed to young people and want to see them made available by prescription only.
Why it matters: The nicotine pouch business is booming worldwide, and experts argue that unless the feds do more to stop them from being marketed to teens, Canada will be facing the same problems it did with the youth vaping epidemic.
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Health Canada data shows that Canada has one of the highest rates of teen e-cigarette use in the world, a problem that experts say has been fuelled by a lack of regulation around flavoured products.
Zoom out: Nicotine pouches have gained traction quickly, particularly in the U.S. Last year, sales of the popular brand Zyn exceeded 800 million units, with an army of social influencers (not-so-cleverly called ‘Zynfluencers’) racking up nearly 300 million views on TikTok.—LA