I am writing in response to a recent letter (Youth beware of vaping risks, March 4) to correct the record.
JUUL Labs Canada has never manufactured or sold the flavours as implied in the letter (cotton candy, strawberry, cherry, buttered popcorn) in the Canadian market or elsewhere.
Our mission is to transition Canada’s millions of adult smokers away from combustible cigarettes while actively combatting underage use of our products. JUUL products contain nicotine and nicotine is addictive. People who do not already use nicotine, and especially young people, should not start using nicotine. Smokers should first and foremost quit—but if they can’t or won’t quit, they should completely switch to potentially less harmful nicotine products.
Several leading public health institutions, including Health Canada, believe that while vaping is not risk-free, it is much less harmful than smoking, and that switching smokers to vaping represents a significant public health opportunity. Public Health England, for example, has stated that vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.
Adult smokers should have access to harm reduction products, at least on parity with the access they have to cigarettes.
The Government of P.E.I. has elected to severely limit adult access to vaping products. Under their new rules, cigarettes — which kill 100 Canadians every day — will remain available across the Island in 125 stores, whereas vaping products will be available in just 11 vape/tobacconist shops.
The vaping products category must be reset and we must build trust with regulators and the public. Tighter restrictions on all nicotine products — such as the P.E.I. government’s recent passage of Tobacco 21 legislation — are positive developments which JUUL Labs Canada strongly supports. But policies that benefit cigarettes at the expense of potentially less harmful nicotine products strike the wrong balance, and are not the right solution to improve public health.
Michael Nederhoff,
President, JUUL Labs Canada
