P.E.I. Flavor Ban for Vapor Products Starts Today

Flavored vaping products are banned on Prince Edward Island in Canada. The regulation changes were passed by cabinet in August of last year. It comes as part of a private members bill from PC MLA Cory Deagle, which received unanimous support from the legislature in 2019, to crack down on nicotine use among young people.

“The only flavor you’ll be able to use would be tobacco flavored so all those other flavors will be gone,” Deagle said. “This is probably one of the biggest steps that we’re going to see trying to get rid of, or at least reduce, the amount of youth that are vaping.”

Vendors were notified of the upcoming ban on flavored products in August 2020, in a letter distributed by the Department of Health and Wellness, according to the CBC. The letter said the department believed that with six month advance notice, “tobacconist shops have sufficient time to deplete their inventory of flavored electronic smoking device products.”

At Wild Impulse, a vape shop in Charlottetown, the shelves were still full of flavored products last Friday afternoon, with the ban just days away. Manager J-K Thorne said the store carries more than 45 flavors for vaping, but as of March 1st, they will only be able to sell ones that are tobacco flavored, flavorless or labelled clear, adding that the flavor ban is also pushing former smokers back to combustible cigarettes.

“Customers are a little disappointed. They feel that they have something to lean on if they wanted to get off cigarettes,” Thorne said. “They found that the tobacco flavor actually reminded them of cigarettes, but it wasn’t good enough, and it actually brought them back to buying cigarettes, which is a little unfortunate.”