The countdown is officially on for people who use vapes in Quebec.
Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Wednesday that as of October 31st, Quebec stores will no longer be able to sell flavoured vape products.
“These new regulations concerning vaping products aim in particular to protect young people from the harmful and worrying effects of vaping. It is our responsibility and we will ensure that these substances become less attractive to everyone,” Dubé said.
The vaping industry is outraged. Angelina Raimondo runs 14 vape stores across Quebec under the Le Vapeur Express banner. Sales are strong right now, but soon almost everything on these shelves will be illegal.
“It’s sad, actually,” she told Global News at her store at Carrefour Angrignon. “Ninety per cent of my e-liquid business is in flavours.”
As of Oct 31, only vapes that taste like tobacco or are flavourless will be allowed to be sold in Quebec.
Raimondo pointed to a tiny shelf of products in her store that will still be allowed under the new regulations.
“This right here. That’s it out of the entire store,” Raimondo said.
As Raimondo wonders how her business can possibly survive, anti-smoking advocates are celebrating.
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“We’re thrilled,” said Flory Doucas of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. “This is really what was needed to reduce the appeal of vaping products among our youth.”
Flory Doucas agrees with the government’s perspective that the elimination of flavours is necessary because of their attractiveness to young people.
Raimondo argues that the flavours have helped many adults, including herself, stop smoking cigarettes and move to vaping instead.
“We helped people stop something that was killing them,” she said, as her eyes began to fill with tears. “I truly believe that it’s a mechanism to be able to do that.”
Doucas said adults who want to continue vaping will be able to smoke the tobacco and flavourless products.
Raimondo wonders if people will just return to smoking cigarettes if they’re not able to smoke the flavours. She adds that vapers will still be able to find flavoured products on the black market or online.
“They’re just simply handing our business to Ontario,” she said. In Ontario flavours are allowed to be sold in specialized shops.
Imperial Tobacco, a major player in the vape industry, also says the new regulations will just push more people to the black market.
“Young people are already obtaining vaping products illegally,” said Eric Gagnon, Imperial Tobacco Canada’s vice-president of legal and external affairs. “They will inevitably continue to obtain their supplies the same way adults will from now on – through the black market, where products are unlicensed and there are no safety standards.”
Doucas applauds Quebec for ignoring big tobacco’s lobbying.
“The tobacco industry needs those products not just to recruit current smokers, but to create new markets, new consumers,” she said.
Pro-vaping groups have not ruled out possible legal action against the government to block the flavour ban.
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