Convenience store firms that operate thousands of outlets across Canada are taking the federal government to court to overturn regulations that restrict the sale of nicotine pouches to pharmacies.
Mac’s Convenience Stores Inc. and Couche-Tard Inc., both subsidiaries of Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., claim in an application in Federal Court that Health Canada’s rules restricting the sale of nicotine pouches to pharmacies are unfair and unconstitutional.
Parkland Corp., which operates gas station convenience stores under the On the Run brand, claims in its own court application that the limit to pharmacy-only sales will increase demand for illegal products “that youth already have access to, and will continue to have access to through the contraband market.”
Parkland claims illegal nicotine replacement therapy products “are more dangerous than regulated” products, and the rules will “have the effect of increasing — not decreasing — the risk of injury to health.”
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Mac’s and Couche Tard’s application makes a …