There are has been many vaping sceptics who have criticizes the Canadian government for failing to pass laws that will prevent young Canadians from taking up vaping. For example, in June 2021, a Calgary Cumming School of Medicine associate professor and two medical students published an opinion piece in the Calgary Herald criticizing the provincial government for failing to act by enacting laws that will curb vaping among teenagers.
But the vaping advocates have not been sleeping either. Just a week after the opinion piece was published, Rights4Vapers, a Canadian vaping advocacy group responded by calling all stakeholders to consider the benefits of vaping as a tool for quitting smoking.
Rights4Vapers just like many other vaping advocacy groups in the country see itself as an agent of change. The group, therefore, does not shy away from pushing back against anything it considers misinformation regarding vaping. The group relies on press releases and blog posts to do this.
In many cases, written information is not sufficient in pushing back against misinformation and unfair regulations. This is why the group help a Canadian road tour dabbed “bring the truth” last summer. The whole purpose of the road tour was to bring the truth to the people about vaping and seek backing from the public to push back against regulations.
The group has also been working around the clock to promote a petition filed against regulators seeking to curb flavours in e-cigarettes. Health Canada has reported that e-cigarette flavours are making Canadian youth more susceptible to vaping. The advocacy group, however, argue that flavours help adults quit smoking and banning them could hurt the main purpose of vaping products.
Many vaping advocates argue that increased regulations around vaping products or increased vape taxes on these products will likely make these products less accessible and thus force many users to opt for the more harmful cigarettes. These advocates say that the government needs to work on finding ways to discourage the youth from vaping without disincentivizing those using vaping products to quit smoking.
Health Canada agrees with advocacy groups that vaping is not as harmful as smoking. However, it says youth in the country needs to be protected from vaping because the long terming impacts of vaping are yet to be known. This is more important today than at any other time in history because studies paint a gloomy picture of Canadian youth.
Statistics Canada survey shows that 61% of the youth who admit to having used vaping products in the past 30 days have never smoked cigarettes in their lives. This goes against claims that vaping products are mainly used by individuals who are quitting smoking. Healthy Canada says that nicotine in vaping products is highly addictive and when teenagers who have never smoked use these products, they are likely to suffer the negative impacts.
Despite opposition from the vaping advocacy groups the government and other stakeholders are determined to protect the youth from the harmful impacts of vaping and cigarette smoking. The advocacy groups on the other hand are not relenting and are determined to find ways to keep engaging other stakeholders.
