2023-08-03 00:03:57
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, as well as the Minister responsible for Sports, Recreation and the Outdoors, Isabelle Charest, made the announcement on Wednesday. These measures to tighten the regulation of vaping products are part of efforts to strengthen prevention and health promotion, the development of healthy lifestyles and to dissuade young people from consuming this type of product, which can be harmful to their health and development.
In addition to the ban on flavors, the government also wants to limit the concentration of nicotine in products to 20mg/ml, set the capacity of tanks and capsules at 2ml and the maximum volume of refill containers for liquids to be vaped at 30ml. . Larger formats will be doomed, as will disposable vapes. Measures that traders deplore.
“I think it’s a bit exaggerated,” says the manager of Vapoteur in Jonquière, Manon Desbiens. I agree with removing flavored products from convenience stores and stores not designed for that, but they might have left us the right to sell them in specialty stores. We might keep control, here, young people are carded, and it is forbidden at least 18 years old. »
She admits to having a hard time understanding why the government would legalize pot but not flavors for vaping, and she’s not alone. His friend from Popavape Jonquière, Félix Cantin, is of the same opinion.
” I find it a pity. The SQDC and the SAQ are authorized to sell flavored products, the only difference is that they are government institutions, while the vapeshops are not. Plus, the flavors have helped a lot of people quit smoking,” he says.
Development of the black market
In the opinion of Manon Desbiens and Félix Cantin, the measures taken by the government might open the door to the black market and contraband. “People will go and get their supplies where it is legal in Canada, thinks the manager of Le Vapoteur. Or they will mix themselves to vape, in their garage. »
To avoid smuggling, Manon Desbiens assumes that Internet orders will be checked at customs, and that they will take the trouble to open the packages, since this is the beginning.
“Of course it will develop the black market, you can order it on the Internet in Ontario for example. All that will do is that people will buy elsewhere, and it will be made even more accessible for young people, ”believes Félix Cantin.
The latter is aware of the scourge represented by vapers among minors and he also denounces the responsibility of certain parents who buy these products themselves for their children.
“There are a lot of young people who vape, but it is also the responsibility of the parents who stock up for them. We see that very often. We know it somewhere, but if we don’t have proof that it’s for their minor child, we have no choice but to serve the parents, he says. Some people are also in high school, but are 18, and can pull out stock for their school friends. Again, it’s hard to know, since it happens that customers really take 5 or 6 products for them. »
In addition, taxes on these products will increase further. For a 30 ml bottle, you will have to count $14 more in taxes, and therefore pay double the price.
Between 75 and 98% of sales
The two managers agree that these new restrictions are very likely to cause a hole in the company’s finances, since flavored products represent between 75 and 98% of their sales. When Le Quotidien passed through the premises of Popavape, three people entered to buy this type of liquid.
To overcome this lack, Manon Desbiens and Félix Cantin have each implemented small strategies. The manager of the Vapoteur began, from the drafts of the regulations, to direct her customers towards tasteless products.
“A lot of customers have already tried to quit the flavors since the announcement. I have been preparing my clients for the transition for several months, and it helps a lot, it allowed me to win back some of them, ”she explains.
As for the Popavape franchise, it should move towards another niche, that of exotic products, while retaining a few articles for smokers. “We would become a GreenPoPa, it would be a bit like La Commère, but there is nothing official yet,” concludes Félix Cantin.
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