This post identifies information recently posted on some federal government websites that is relevant to tobacco control.
Compared with cannabis and alcohol, Canadians continue to think smoking and vaping are less acceptable and more risky.
On January 12, Health Canada released the results of the most recent Cannabis survey. This is the sixth release of the annual survey, which is one of the few Canadian surveillance tools which looks at the social acceptability of using legal recreational drugs by mode of delivery.
Of the six behaviours (oral cannabis use, smoked cannabis use, vaped cannabis, alcohol drinking, vaping nicotine and smoking tobacco ), smoked tobacco continues to be the least socially acceptable behaviour, followed by vaping.
This survey also asks about perceived risks of product use. Again, tobacco use and vaping are perceived to be the most risky. There have been statistically significant shifts in perceptions of risk for both vaping (higher then lower) and tobacco (lower) when compared to 6 years ago.
The survey also found that using dried leaf (smoking) cannabis remains the most popular form of delivery (60% of past-year users), but that this has fallen in recent years, with increasing use of edibles and vaping. Among daily cannabis users, dried leaf is the most common form of use (31% of dried leaf users are daily users). The combined use of tobacco and cannabis has fallen slightly since 2018 (from 30% to 24%).
Twice as many post-secondary students are vaping as smoking.
The results of the 2020-2021 Canadian Postsecondary Education Alcohol and Drug Use Survey (CPADS) were posted on the
federal government website in January. This survey engaged 31,643 Canadian students aged 17 to 25 enrolled in any program at a university, college or CEGEP.
Alcohol remains the most frequent substance consumed (two-thirds of students in the past month), with Cannabis coming second (29% past month use, 8% daily use), vaping third (17% past month use, 8% daily use) followed by smoking (8% past month use, 2% daily use). Gender differences in vaping and smoking were not observed.
New trademark registrations may signal new products
In January, Corporations Canada reported new trademark filings by Philip Morris for:
From these it seems reasonable to assume that:
Changing surveillance tools
Although it has not made an announcement to this effect, Health Canada has terminated its support for the
Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, making the winter of 2022-23 the last period in which this survey was conducted.
In January, Health Canada
issued an Advanced Contract Award Notice for a $700,000 contract with the University of Waterloo for a "Evaluating and understanding cigarette smoking, nicotine vaping, and policies on both products among adults in Canada in the international context" The contract appears to be for an additional wave of the ITC study of smokers and former smokers, with increased sampling in each province.
I Quit for Me
Health Canada has updated and re-branded its Quit4Life resources. The new resources
became available on the web-site in January. The website also asks young people to answer a long survey on smoking and vaping and their feelings of addiction (including 8 options for gender!). Those who participate are invited to contact Health Canada for a follow-up survey.
Administrative modifications to the federal Vaping Products Tax
Canada has imposed a tax on vaping liquids at retail
since January 2023 and a number of provinces have indicated that they will be partnering in this tax (with a rumoured start date of July 2024).
