Oh, look at that. Nicotine is popular again among Canadian adults — and youth

After decades of decline, nicotine consumption in Canada is on the rise. People are smoking fewer traditional cigarettes, but alternative products such as vapes, e-cigarettes and, most recently — and dramatically — nicotine pouches are taking hold.

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Nicotine pouches are positioned as an aid for people trying to quit smoking. Tucked in between the lip or cheek and gums, nicotine pouches are more discreet than a vape, one of the factors thought to be driving their use. Given their newness, the long-term effects of pouches are unclear, but nicotine is known to be highly addictive.

“Research has indeed shown that nicotine pouches have grown among Canadians,” says Geoffrey Fong, a professor of psychology and public health sciences at the University of Waterloo, a senior investigator for the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and principal investigator at the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project.

Between 2022 and 2024, ITC Canada national surveys show that nicotine pouch use increased from 3.6 per cent to 5.3 per cent among Canadian adults (18+) who smoke or formerly smoked. Among youth ages 13 to 15, current nicotine-pouch use rose from 1.0 per cent in 2022 to 2.5 per cent in 2024, then levelled off in 2025.

Early ITC research has shown that when people start using a new nicotine product, they don’t substitute the old one completely, increasing the total amount of nicotine they use, says Fong. “So, it’s really a booming industry.”

The rise of nicotine pouches among young non-smokers has been swift, and the medical community and policy experts are concerned about the implications.

More than one-third (35 per cent) of Canadians aged 17 to 27 have tried nicotine pouches this year, up from eight per cent in 2022, according to data from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit.

Public health experts attribute the growth of nicotine pouches to lifestyle marketing reminiscent of the tobacco advertising of the past — now banned in Canada — and social media, where influencers promote nicotine as a wellness hack.

“The advertisements seem to appeal to, or are designed to appeal to, younger folk, and I think sometimes they’re portrayed as being an alternative to smoking a cigarette, and they’re implying that it might be safer,” says Dr. Michael Mak, a staff psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

Imperial Tobacco Canada’s Zonnic is the only government-approved nicotine pouch available for sale in the country. Pouches are kept behind pharmacy counters and are limited to mint or menthol flavours. Product packaging is required to note that nicotine is addictive and that pouches are not for use by people under 18.

Yet, the illicit market is booming. “We see Zyn. We see on! (made by Helix Innovations) We see all of these, and down the road, we may be seeing the Chinese-manufactured pouches,” says Fong. “It’s out there.”

When Zonnic launched in 2023, “they had extensive marketing with lifestyle advertising, showing happy young people in a social setting or in association with athletics. The same type of classic lifestyle advertising that they had used in the past for cigarettes,” says Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.

In 2024, Health Canada introduced measures “to help prevent harms to youth from nicotine replacement therapies,” including prohibiting advertising or promotion that could be appealing to them.

“There are other channels and social media, of course, and influencers and so on, that just get the message through,” says Fong. “If it were the case… that the people who were in the market for these products were all the adults, that would be just fantastic. That would be a very positive thing for public health. That’s not what the market is. The market is all about youth and young adults.”

Nicotine pouch brands are continuing to widen their reach, from music festivals to NASCAR. Philip Morris International’s Zyn and British American Tobacco’s Velo sponsor Formula One racing teams, which have found a new audience in Gen Z.

Fong notes that youth must be protected, but at the same time, smoking cigarettes kills one-half to two-thirds of its regular users.

“It’s always challenging because there’s a population that would benefit because (nicotine pouches) are harm-reducing,” says Fong. “Then there’s, of course, the group of non-users, mostly youth, that they would be harm-producing or increasing. How do you balance that off? No one knows, but countries have taken different positions on this.”

Several European countries, including France, have banned sales of nicotine pouches. Others have applied restrictions, such as Denmark limiting flavours to tobacco or menthol.

Alberta, Ontario and the convenience store industry are lobbying to have nicotine pouches available for sale beyond pharmacies, arguing that they shouldn’t be subject to more retail restrictions than cigarettes. National Post recently reported the federal government is “open” to loosening the rules banning sale at convenience stores.

Rates of cigarette smoking may be dropping as the use of alternative nicotine products climbs, but you wouldn’t know it from pop culture. Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams went viral for smoking at Milan Men’s Fashion Week in January. “I’m trying to quit,” he later told Wonderland magazine. Kylie Jenner’s cover shot for Vanity Fair’s spring issue showed her lighting a cigarette.

According to the Lights, Camera, Tobacco? report by American non-profit Truth Initiative, in 2025, eight out of 10 “Best Picture” nominees at the Academy Awards involved tobacco, several of which starred celebrities smoking on screen, including Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez.

So far, despite increasing media depictions, the data hasn’t shown an increase in smoking cigarettes, say Cunningham and Fong.

Restrictions on nicotine products have led to health benefits, says Mak. “I think that loosening the restrictions is a move backwards.”

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