Canada Forces Nicotine Pouches Behind the Counter

Back in July 2023 Health Canada approved ZONNIC nicotine pouches for sale. Now, just over a year later Health Minister Mark Holland has banned for sale from everywhere but pharmacies.

Imperial Tobacco’s ZONNIC pouches jumped through two years of regulatory hoops to get its nicotine pouches approved by Health Canada. However, as soon as the smoke-free product hit the market, the nanny state jumped into action.

No doubt fuelled by paranoid Big Tobacco conspiracy theories and and some increasingly negative coverage from some quarters, the Liberal Party has made it illegal to sell pouches outside of pharmacy settings.

Additionally, they’ve even demanded that ZONNIC recall their Berry Frost and Tropic Breeze flavours because, in the words of Mark Holland, they’re “clearly designed to target youth.” I’m almost 35 and have a can of Nordic Spirit ‘Frosty Berry’ so I don’t know what that says about me?

I can’t buy the argument that if you make a product palatable, then it’s specifically aim at children. When vape companies started giving their flavours increasingly embarrassing names like ‘Fairy Floss Fiesta’ I can see how to some you might be walking a fine line, but nicotine pouches have never really had this problem. When I started using pouches it was ‘Bergamot Wildberry’, hardly something you could accused of being aimed at kids. I’m never convinced policy makers actually look that closely at things like this.

The man behind the ban

With elections coming up in October 2025, recent polls have Trudeau’s party at around 25%, a full 15 points behind the Conservatives.

There are many reasons why Canadians have had enough of the Liberals. One of the biggest is their constant overreach and meddling, which was on full display with their new nicotine pouch regulations that will come into effect on August 28th. It’s just another issue where the party seems completely out of touch with the average Canadian.

Health Minister Mark Holland, the man behind this nanny state nonsense, is cutting a very erratic figure these days. Just last month, columnist Brian Lilley asked, “Is Trudeau health minister Mark Holland okay?” in response to a series of strange comments about road trips, people using gasoline as mouthwash, and even how Canadians should think about sex.

Indeed, anyone who watched the video of Holland’s word salad response to critics of the carbon tax would have serious reservations about the man’s judgement and ability to cope with pressure or even string a set of coherent thoughts together. I wouldn’t trust Holland to run a small errand, let alone run a government department.

New restrictions

As Cory Morgan wrote in an excellent article in the Western Standard a few days ago, Mark Holland is what you get when you appoint activists to important ministerial positions. Holland’s language and framing around nicotine pouches is not just unstatesmanlike; it’s vengeful.

Try this one on tobacco companies:

“We never know what hole they’ll slither out of next to try to attack our children,”

That is the language of primal fear. Holland is a mama bear who sees threats everywhere, even in harm-reduction consumer products. When someone speaks like this, it’s because they value the emotional over the rational. As CBC’s Marina von Stackelberg shared in an article on Holland’s pouch restrictions, the government isn’t even tracking pouch use. They don’t have reliable numbers on teen or adult use; this is about grinding an ideological axe and attacking Big Tobacco.

Of course, the people who will miss out the most are the approximately 5 million Canadians who smoke cigarettes. As the cost of living continues to spiral out of control, having a cheaper, healthier alternative smoking product on display in convenience stores or gas stations could have made a positive impact on the country’s smoking prevalence rates. Sadly, Trudeau’s party don’t trust Canadian citizens to make their own decisions.

Final thoughts

Putting friction between consumers and the products that can save their lives is always bad policy. Nicotine pouches are virtually harmless. It’s often said that the Liberal Party of Canada is a glorified student union. These new regulations won’t do much to counter that observation or help them win back the trust and respect of voters.

You can sign the Consumer Choicer Center’s petition to ‘Leave Pouches Alone’ here.