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Opinion: Ottawa needs to stop fuelling the underground nicotine market

Treating legal nicotine products as if they were as harmful as smoked tobacco only encourages Canadians to pursue unauthorized suppliers

Canada’s unauthorized market for nicotine pouches is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. In January 2025, officers at the Cornwall port of entry seized 2,600 cans of nicotine pouches as part of a shipment of products valued at $114,000. In June of last year, officers at the Pigeon River crossing, west of Lake Superior, intercepted 212,000 pouches in a single cube van. By August of this year, seizures had increased to commercial loads measured in tonnes. At the Blue Water Bridge, at the southern end of Lake Huron, officers seized two nicotine pouch shipments valued at more than $3.8 million.

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