In an attempt to curb its high rate of youth vaping, Saskatchewan recently introduced new measures. One measure coming into force on September 1 is a ban on the sale of vape flavours, with the exception of tobacco, mint, and menthol, anywhere but in licensed specialty vape stores.
For their recent news feature on the new regulations, Global News included comment from stakeholder groups, including the CICC. Anne Kothawala, CICC president and CEO, called the ban on flavours in c-stores a “red herring” that will do nothing to reduce youth vaping rates.
“If you look at when [Health Minister Paul Merriman] made the announcement, he specifically talked about flavours like ice cream. Flavours like ice cream or cotton candy or unicorn flavours are not flavours that you could ever purchase at a convenience store. To be clear, we want a restricted number. We’re not asking to be able to sell hundreds of flavours of vape. We just know that there are a few select, maybe five, six, maximum eight flavours that we know our adult smoking customers, who choose to make that transition, want to be able to buy.”
The full article, including a clip of Ms. Kothawala’s video interview with Global News, can be found here.