B.C. is losing ground on nicotine – and youth are paying the price
British Columbia has long prided itself on being a leader in public health and tobacco control. But confidence in past success has led B.C. to lower its guard, and today Big Tobacco has quietly slipped back in – in a clever disguise.
On the surface, things look promising. Smoking rates are going down in the province, reinforcing the perception that we are moving in the right direction.
But beneath that progress, something else is happening.
More young people in B.C. are vaping, and nicotine is quietly making a comeback in a new form. Walk past a group of teenagers today and you are more likely to smell mango or cotton candy than tobacco smoke. The addiction has not disappeared – it has just been repackaged.
And policymakers have not kept up.
Nicotine remains one of the most addictive substances we know. Health Canada says it can affect how a young person’s brain develops, including memory, attention and mood.
There are also immediate health concerns. Vaping can irritate the lungs and affect the heart, and we still do not fully understand the long-term effects.
This is not a small issue. Across Canada, nearly one in three youth aged 15 to 19 has tried vaping and 15 per cent of Canadian youth (grades 7-12) are currently regularly vaping.
This year’s World No Tobacco Day, led by the World Health Organization, focuses on “Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction.” The idea of “unmasking” matters because what young people are seeing today does not look dangerous. It is being packaged as fun, flavoured and harmless.
But that is not the full story.
Flavours are a major reason young people start vaping. In B.C., 42 per cent of youth have tried vaping, and 27 per cent say they used it in the past month. Even more telling, a vast majority of B.C. youth aged 16 to 18 who vape still use fruit-flavoured products.
These flavours are not incidental – they make it easier to start and harder to stop.
So, what can legislators in B.C. do?
They can begin by modernizing our tobacco-control approach, which is more than 20 years old. Existing policies do not add up to a coordinated response, and nicotine markets are evolving faster than public health measures.
Take flavoured nicotine products as an example. B.C. did not ban them – it relocated them. Most flavours disappeared from convenience stores, but they remain widely available in adult-only vape shops. That may reduce visibility, but it does not remove the appeal or access given that a large portion of youth still report they use flavoured vape products.
Other provinces have gone further. Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have banned most non-tobacco flavours. B.C. chose a middle path, and the results suggest it is not working.
If B.C. truly wants to protect young people, it must respond with greater urgency and clarity. That means a modern nicotine plan that addresses vaping and smoking together, focuses on prevention, supports people trying to quit and keeps pace with rapidly changing products.
It should begin with decisive action on flavours.
A full ban on flavoured nicotine products would not solve everything, but it would remove one of the strongest drivers of youth uptake. Flavours are not a minor detail – they are central to the problem. In fact, many young people report vaping simply “for the flavour.”
Other provinces have already acted. If protecting youth remains a priority, B.C. should be prepared to follow their lead.
Because if a new generation becomes addicted to nicotine through vaping, it does not matter that cigarette use is down. The outcome is the same. Addiction is addiction.
On this World No Tobacco Day, we have a choice. We can continue with half-measures and hope the problem stabilizes. Or we can act with intention and make a real difference.
B.C. led before. B.C. can lead again.
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