One Letter. One Question. Thousands of Kilometres.
Follow us this summer...
In March, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister Dale Nally sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Health Minister Marjorie Michel, with a simple questions.
Why is it easier for an adult Canadian to buy cigarettes than it is to buy a safer nicotine alternative, like the pouch?
The letter challenged the federal government’s decision to move legal nicotine pouches behind pharmacy counters, a policy intended to reduce youth access but one that Alberta argues has instead fuelled the illegal market while making it harder for adults to access regulated products. It asked Ottawa to rethink whether the policy is achieving its intended goal.
When we read that letter, we couldn’t stop thinking about another question.
What is actually happening across Canada?
Are illegal nicotine pouches really becoming easier to find? Has limiting access to legal products simply pushed consumers toward an unregulated market? What are retailers seeing? What are adult Canadians experiencing?
Those aren’t questions that can be answered from behind a desk in Ottawa.
So we’re hitting the road.
This August, Rights4Vapers is travelling from Montreal to Edmonton in an RV to find the answers.
We are calling it Summer 2026 Road Trip. And we want you to follow us along!
For more than a decade, we’ve advocated for evidence-based tobacco harm reduction. We’ve met with governments, testified before committees, spoken at international conferences, organized campaigns, and helped hundreds of thousands of Canadians make their voices heard.
Now it’s time to leave the meeting rooms behind and hear directly from Canadians.
Starting August 14th we will travel through communities across the country, documenting the real-world impact of current nicotine policies. We’ll visit retailers, meet with advocates, interview experts, speak with consumers, and investigate how the illegal nicotine pouch market has changed since the federal restrictions came into effect.
This isn’t about proving a point. It’s about discovering the truth. If current policies are working, Canadians deserve to know. If they’re creating unintended consequences, Canadians deserve to know that too.
We’ll be sharing the entire journey as it happens. Follow us:
On our website where we will be positing daily updates Rights4Vapers
Send a letter at Unlock the Pouches in Canada
How You Can Help?
There are two simple ways to support this campaign.
Buy us a coffee. Every contribution helps cover fuel, campgrounds, internet, equipment, and the countless expenses that come with driving thousands of kilometres across Canada to document this story.
Buy our Swag. We have some great designs created for this trip and we are going to be selling them online through a third party service. (we will post the site as soon as we have everything completed)
If you can’t contribute financially, share our work. Share a video. Share an interview. Start a conversation. SHARE www.unlockthepouch.ca
This road trip is about more than nicotine pouches. It’s about asking whether public policy is delivering the outcomes it promised, and we want to uncover the truth.
We hope you’ll come with us. Let’s find the answers. Let’s unlock the pouch