Last week an order in council was signed to amend Nova Scotia’s Tobacco Access Act. The new regulations will restrict nicotine concentrations to 20 milligrams per millilitre, a measure the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has repeatedly called on the federal government to implement.
This new regulation follows a flavour ban in Nova Scotia which came into effect on April 1, 2020. Prior to the implementation of the flavour ban, the CVA strongly cautioned that eliminating flavours would decimate specialty vape shops with the removal of 97% of their products, the vast majority of which were flavoured low nicotine products used by adult ex-smokers.
Kelly Cull a spokesperson for the Canadian Cancer Society has said that the organization is looking for further regulation requiring the sale of vapour products to be limited to adult-only access specialty vape shops. Ordinarily, this type of regulation would be commended by the CVA, however adult-only vape shops in Nova Scotia have been eliminated by the regulations recently enacted to ban flavours. The CVA made it clear to regulators and stakeholders that specialty vape shops were best poised to restrict youth access, but the Government of Nova Scotia refused to engage in any dialogue with the industry. In the wake of the flavour ban policy responsible for the closure of dozens of small businesses, the Canadian Cancer Society is now suggesting limiting sales to the same adult restricted vape shops that their advocacy has shut down.
Stockhouse – GlobeNewswire – Darryl Tempest – May 12, 2020.
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