The Province of Ontario has announced its plans to place a ban on advertising of any vaping-related products inside of variety stores and convenience stores. This ban is set to be in place on January 1, 2020.
This ban is set up to regulate advertising in areas where the general public has access. It will not affect current exclusive vape shops or cannabis retail stores that already have adult-only 19+ restrictions in their businesses.
The health minister of Ontario has confirmed that the ban will be in effect January 1st, 2020.
Recently, Richmond, British Columbia, banned advertising for vape products on city property.
The design of this ban is to reduce the potential interacting with vaping promotions to youth, who can visit gas stations and grocery stores without any age restrictions.
Health Minister Christine Elliot stated in her release:Â “Restricting the promotion of vapour products will help prevent youth from being exposed and influenced by promotion in retail settings”.
This ban is being considered by some as the first step by the Ontario government, who is behind some other provincial regulators. Rob Cunningham, from the Canadian Cancer Society, states “There are eight provinces that have e-cigarette legislation” The two that don’t are Alberta and Saskatchewan”.
Other areas being looked into by the Ontario government as it relates to vaping are:
- Restricting the sale of vaping products to specialty stores
- Considering raising the age to purchase vaping products to 21
- Limiting the range of flavoring in vaping e-liquids
WHAT DO WE THINK?
From my perspective, as the owner of a specialty vape shop in London, Ontario, I applaud the Ontario government. About a year ago when I started seeing advertisements for vape products on my gas station pump at Petro Canada in London, I was taken aback. I had been under the understanding that outside public advertising of vape products was already banned in Ontario.
What it ended up being was the big tobacco companies, who now own Vype and Juul, using their access to gas stations and convenience stores through their sales of cigarettes, and using this access as an easy area for promotion of their vaping products.
It was never the independent vape shop owner responsible for this type of advertising, but Big Tobacco. I believe that limiting adverting to only inside of vape shops, and requiring only legal adults to visit said vape shops will improve the success in combating under age purchasing of vaping products. This is similar to our beer and liquor stores, which require you to be 19+ to enter and purchase products. However, with new Ontario regulations offering beer to be purchased at grocery stores, this same regulation is not in place for alcohol in Ontario, which in my opinion is unfortunate – but that’s a conversation for another day…
Information for the article thanks to CBC.
Howie
