You deserve to know the full story
Sometimes even the government needs to be fact checked.
Our goal is to set the record straight. Minister of Health Mark Holland has been outspoken about ZONNIC in the last few months. Here are our comments on the Minister’s public statements. It is our hope that ZONNIC helps Canadians who smoke quit and helps to lower the smoking rate to less than five percent by 2035.
March 20 Press Conference
Minister Holland
“Let me say in the first order that when it comes to cessation, we want to see innovation. We want to see products that are going to get people off nicotine and off of tobacco. We know that smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death in this country. It’s responsible for untold loss of life and for untold illness. And so when it comes to innovating in the space of cessation, I celebrate that and want to see more of it. But that isn’t what happened.”
Fact Check
We agree with the minister that innovation is essential if we are to reduce smoking rates to less than five percent by 2035. This is exactly what ZONNIC is all about. ZONNIC is the first nicotine pouch licensed by Health Canada as a nicotine replacement therapy. We have received many testimonials from consumers who have told us that ZONNIC has helped them quit. How is providing a new NRT that smokers seem to find effective not innovative?
“The tobacco industry yet again used a loophole to try to create innovation in the space of cessation to get people off of these products to create a brand new line of products that addicts particularly kids to products that are deadly for their health.”
Incorrect statement
This is not what happened. ZONNIC nicotine pouches followed a 2-year review process with Health Canada, demonstrating the safety and efficacy as a cessation aid for adults that wish to stop smoking. There is no legal minimum age required to purchase NRT products in Canada. Kids can walk into a store and legally buy these products. This is the real loophole. This is also why we voluntarily decided to store ZONNIC behind the counter in convenience stores with retailers requiring age-verification and are working with our pharmacy partners to ensure that they implement proper youth access prevention measures.
‘’We shouldn’t be seeing flavours that are targeting kids, flavours like, you know, winter berry splash or whatever tropical fruit, whatever that they’re putting out there. We all see through it. We know what the intention is and it’s over. It’s essential and I’m seeking these authorities immediately and the conversations I’m having with provinces and territories for all cessation products, that the only flavours that should exist should be for the purposes of promoting cessation.’’
Fact Check
This is why we only have three flavours, and none of them is winter berry splash. Our intention is clear, we want to help adult smokers quit. To do so, a reasonable range of flavours aimed at adult smokers need to be made available because smokers don’t want their nicotine replacement therapy product to remind them of the tobacco taste of cigarettes. In addition, all other NRT companies are using flavours to help adults quit smoking, while it seems that only ITCAN is a concern.
“In the second order, when it comes to marketing, I’m seeking authority to make sure that before any marketing goes out the door, that marketing comports with the approved intent of the product. It is reprehensible to me that the tobacco industry, after being approved for a cessation product, will be putting out ads and information to try to addict kids to these products.”
Correct
We agree with the minister that kids should not have access to any nicotine products. ZONNIC is marketed as a cessation product in accordance with Health Canada’s license. ZONNIC is also not marketed any differently from other smoking cessation brands. Suggesting otherwise is just made in bad faith by the Minister and by the anti-tobacco lobby groups. ITCAN’s marketing has and continues to remain compliant with all applicable laws and regulations.
“I am talking to oral health professionals as we’re rolling out a national dental care program, and what do I hear in those conversations but that young people, under their tongue when they’re playing hockey or baseball or sports, have these products and they’re destroying their oral health. They’re putting them at risk of cancer and all kinds of illness. And that, these are kids who have no exposure to tobacco or nicotine before. That’s entirely unacceptable.”
Fact Check
The medicinal ingredient in ZONNIC pouches is nicotine. Nicotine is not known to cause cancer and is approved for use in NRTs such as ZONNIC. [Source]. If kids are using nicotine pouches, they are unlikely to be using ZONNIC since we ensure that its sale be subject to proper prior age verification measures. We know there is an unauthorized and unregulated nicotine pouches market in Canada, including products containing up to 20 mg of nicotine. They are illegally sold on websites and in stores.
“What we saw happening in vaping, all the illness, the death, the sickness, we cannot allow that to happen in nicotine pouches, we cannot allow this to happen in an abuse of a channel, a legitimate channel in cessation that’s been opened. And these measures working with my provincial and territorial counterparts I’m convinced will do the work.”
Incorrect statement
We must strongly disagree with the minister on this. There have been no known deaths linked to legal vaping products. The vaping crisis in the US, called EVALI, was caused by illicit products and people tampering with their device by adding DIY substances. We urge the Minister of Health to get his facts straight when it comes to vaping related illness, and address the illicit nicotine pouch market expediently to avoid any health related issues.
