Ottawa’s storefront censors
Imagine a store in Toronto’s busy downtown core, one that sells an innovative new technology — one that has the potential to improve the lives of adults currently using traditional products that have been on the market for decades. Now picture these stores with no name, no branding. Think about the thousands of people walking past the store unaware of what is inside or that this alternative technology exists.
Now consider that this new technology is a replacement for traditional cigarettes.
It sounds strange, but it is exactly the situation we have today, because we sell a device called IQOS, which is an electronic alternative to cigarettes.
Because IQOS vaporizes tobacco — rather than vaporizing a liquid, like an ecigarette does — it is lumped in with traditional, burning cigarettes under federal law. This despite the fact that years of research have shown that IQOS is fundamentally a better choice than a cigarette for smokers.
Our hope was that IQOS — a device comprised of plastic, metal and microchips — would be treated differently than cigarettes.
Unfortunately, the government of Canada is more interested in optics than science and it sent us a letter demanding we remove the IQOS store signs from our two Toronto locations by early November.
Of course, we complied. Crews came over to the stores in October, set up ladders and equipment and removed the signs.
The result? Stores with no names — and, more importantly, the inability of Canadian smokers to learn about this better alternative.
We believe Canadians are being short-changed. Rather than removing signs, we believe Health Canada should be encouraging us to open more stores and provide better choices for smokers than cigarettes.
We believe that the best thing Canadians can do is quit smoking. However, we understand that many Canadians will continue to smoke. So, we made it our business to invest in alternatives to cigarette smoking and Philip Morris International, our parent company, spent billions of dollars and many years developing IQOS.
The result is a product that reduces the harmful effects of inhaling chemicals associated with smoking cigarettes, because it only heats the tobacco.
But the story doesn’t end here. The next chapter starts this week, with new rules coming into effect that make it even harder for adult smokers in Canada to learn about alternatives like IQOS. Under the federal government’s new rules, it will be illegal for us to tell smokers about the differences between IQOS and cigarettes.
Imagine that. Sharing basic facts with people who will use that information to make more informed choices about their health is now against the law in Canada.
There’s more. Another government proposal is to have heated-tobacco products wrapped in plain brown boxes, just like cigarettes. Coupled with the fact our stores will have no longer have the IQOS name, barriers are being put up in the way of harm reduction.
The new law is a lazy law. It was not written with any consideration of non-combustible smoke-free tobacco products that are different than cigarettes. It does not keep up with technological advancements or scientific research.
As we noted earlier, our parent company Philip Morris has been investing heavily in research around alternatives. We are a business — and we want to be able to continue to run our business.
But we recognize the dangers around cigarette smoking, so we are looking for alternatives for people who want to continue to smoke.
We understand that many people are cynical about big tobacco companies and may question the studies. Look for yourself and make your own decisions.
But put that aside for a moment and consider these facts: There are about four million smokers in Canada and smoking rates are declining slowly. These smokers, and their families, deserve to know there are better options and alternatives available.
Canadians deserve to know. It’s incumbent upon our government to let them.