Vaping advocates are fighting for no new taxes. Industry money helps them do that
CBC
In June 2021, the Calgary Herald published an opinion piece that criticized the provincial government for, in the views of the authors, failing to deliver on promised revisions to Alberta's laws around vaping.
"A cascade of inaction characterizes Alberta's approach to preventing young people from vaping and becoming smokers — just when Alberta should act," the piece states, argued at the time by an associate professor at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine, along with two medical students.
A week later, the Canadian vaping advocacy group Rights4Vapers, which bills itself as an informal collection of committed volunteers, pushed back.
"Rather than unilaterally condemning vaping, let's consider the potential for vapour products as a tool for tobacco harm-reduction," reads the blog from Rights4Vapers, unattributed to any author. "Thousands of smokers in Alberta have [made] the choice to vape."
Rights4Vapers is no stranger when it comes to pushing back against what it says is misinformation against vaping, frequently issuing press releases to do so.
Last summer, the group took its message to the road, holding a Canadian tour to "bring the truth" about vaping. At these stops, the group pushed back against regulation and solicited signatures from bystanders who said vaping had got them off cigarettes.
The group also promoted a petition to "save flavours." Health Canada has said flavours are highly appealing to youth, who are "especially susceptible" to the negative effects of nicotine. Advocates argue adults also enjoy flavoured vapes and removing them from the market could discourage some from making the switch.
Proponents of vaping say these products help those addicted by delivering nicotine with fewer toxins than those that come from smoking cigarettes.
They argue that more taxes or regulations make vaping less accessible and encourage a return to smoking cigarettes, and that tobacco companies naturally are diversifying into alternative products given their fiduciary duty to shareholders. A balance needs to be struck, they say, between protecting youth and keeping vapes available for adults.
Though Health Canada agrees vaping is less harmful than smoking, research is less than definitive about its long-term impacts, especially among youth.
Among youth who had vaped within 30 days prior to a Statistics Canada survey, 61 per cent said they had never tried a tobacco cigarette in their life, suggesting the majority of youth aren't using vaping devices to reduce or quit smoking.
Health officials have also raised concerns about the implications of a new generation becoming addicted to nicotine, a highly addictive substance, which Health Canada says can lead to dependence, affect memory and concentration and could alter teenage brain development.
"Any time you repeatedly inhale chemicals into your lungs, whether it's air pollution or vapour, that's going to be a concern," said David Hammond, a public health professor at the University of Waterloo who researches vaping in youth.
"Unfortunately, it'd be 10 or 20 years before enough people are using these things for enough time that we can really see whether there are respiratory issues or cardiovascular issues."