The results won't be known for decades, but vaping is poised to take off in Canada now that it's officially legal to sell nicotine vaping products under the federal Tobacco and Vaping Products Act, writes Kelly Crowe for CBC News.
And with the law in place, Big Vape has landed. Last week the US vape company Juul Labs announced it was coming to Canada.
"The company's mission is a simple one: impact the lives of the world's one billion adult smokers – and the five million in Canada – by creating a satisfying alternative to combustible cigarettes," the company said in a news release.
"This is potentially a very big deal," said David Hammond, a University of Waterloo professor who studies tobacco use. "In the last 12 to 16 months Juul has absolutely taken off and is now dominating the vaping market in the U.S.," he said. "There's something about this product that's different."
The Juul vape stick looks like a small memory stick and it can be recharged using a computer USB port. And Juul also uses a unique form of nicotine salts that deliver a stronger nicotine hit, one that more closely simulates the experience of smoking a cigarette.
Juul insists it doesn't want kids to use its product and the company is requiring all of its Canadian retailers to follow provincial regulations and demand ID to avoid selling to minors.
But Juul's appeal to teenagers has created controversy in the US prompting the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on retailers selling Juul to young people. The agency is also investigating the company's marketing practices.
In Canada, there are rules about how vaping products can be advertised, including limits on lifestyle ads and images that appeal to children. But Juul's popularity has been fuelled by social media and it's not clear if there is any way to stop the same thing from happening here.
Read the full article on the CBC News site
[link url="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/second-opinion-vape-1.4807280"]Big Vape comes to Canada and the effects won't be known for decades[/link]