(Ottawa) On both sides of the vaping debate, parties say the government must do more to enforce penalties on the sale of vaping products to children after a review found no changes to the law was justified.
The Tobacco and Vaping Products Act is on a fine line between providing smokers with a safer alternative to tobacco products and protecting young people and people who don’t already smoke from vaping.
The law, which came into force in 2018, legalized the sale of vapes – or electronic cigarettes – with or without nicotine. They can now be found in specialty vape shops, convenience stores, gas stations and online retailers across the country.
Health Canada recently decided that changes to the law were not necessary after considering feedback from provinces and territories, NGOs, members of the vaping industry and the public.
The review said the government can instead use regulations to adapt industry rules, such as proposing a regulation to limit sales of flavored products. However, enforcement tools against violators may be limited beyond issuing warnings. Ottawa could therefore explore other options.
“Given the evidence of repeat violations and the limitations of warning letters, the development of additional tools that could address repeat non-compliance with a tiered enforcement approach could be explored,” Health Canada said in the report, which was tabled in Parliament in December.
Online sales to minors have proven particularly difficult to police, as age verification regulations may not be effective enough, the report says.
A 2021 Health Canada review of vaping and tobacco activities came to a similar conclusion, after finding that specialty vape shops were particularly prone to breaking the rules.
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada executive director Cynthia Callard says the law already has stiff fines and penalties for violations, but they have not been used.
“They gave themselves the powers when they passed the law in 2018, said Mr.me Callard in an interview. Now they’re saying, “Well, we have to look at something else,” without really detailing why they’re hesitant to use the powers they have. »
Health Canada’s report shows the department inspected more than 3,000 vape specialty stores, gas stations and convenience stores in 2019 and seized more than 80,000 units of non-compliant vaping products.
During the pandemic, Health Canada made inspections virtual and focused on promoting vaping and nicotine products. It sent warning letters to 53 of the 304 retailers it inspected due to illegal social media posts.
In a statement late Friday, a Health Canada spokesperson said the department “has a compliance and enforcement program in place,” citing the inspections. “All tobacco and vaping product retailers are responsible for knowing and following the requirements” under the law, the statement said.
“Health Canada is enforcing legislative and regulatory requirements and, where necessary, will take compliance and enforcement actions, including warning letters, stop sales, product seizures and criminal investigations. »
Yet the review makes no mention of bringing criminal charges under the law, which come with steep fines and even jail time for violators.
Alternative to combustible tobacco products
Maria Papaioannoy, spokesperson for Rights4Vapers, adds that it would be helpful if Health Canada focused on enforcement, especially when it comes to selling vaping products to minors.
“We believe that responsible vape shop owners do not sell to minors. We believe that responsible convenience store owners do not sell to minors,” said Ms.me Papaioannoy, whose group advocates for people who have used vaping to quit smoking. According to her, the problem lies in the black market.
There isn’t much research on the long-term health effects of inhaling e-cigarettes and the potential consequences of secondary exposure, the government said, but Health Canada is promoting vaping as a more safer to use than combustible tobacco products.
Mme Papaioannoy said she was heartened to see the ministry admit in the report that it had not done a good job of encouraging smokers to switch to vaping.
Data from the 2021 Government Tobacco and Nicotine Survey found that approximately 5% of Canadians over the age of 20 used vaping products, and the majority of these were people who smoked or had vaping. smoking habit.
Of these people, about half said they vaped in an effort to quit or cut down on their tobacco use.
Youth vaping took off after e-cigarettes were legalized, but appeared to level off in 2021, with around 13% of teens aged 15-19 vaping at least once in the past 30 days, according to the report. ‘investigation.
The December review is the first to assess the impact of federal vaping legislation, though it does not address the changes the bill also made to tobacco product regulations. Health Canada aims to review other aspects of the law in two years.
The report was to be filed last May according to the deadlines provided for in the legislation, said Mr.me Callard.
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada sought a Federal Court order in November to compel the government to conduct the review, but the government released it before the case went ahead. Ottawa did not respond to the notice of motion.
Mme Callard said she doesn’t want to devote resources to defending this issue in court, but she interprets the lax approach to the deadline as a reflection of the government’s enforcement of the rules generally.
“They don’t take the law seriously themselves,” she said.