Marketing Tactics

[caption id="attachment_23009" align="alignright" width="300"] Shutterstock[/caption]Convenience stores not a top source of vaping products for youth, according to the “2019 Drug use Among Ontario Students Report”  by The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).“This data confirms what the CICC has been saying for months, convenience stores are not the source of vaping products for youth, and this report makes the Ontario government’s targeting of convenience stores in their attempt to address the youth vaping problem all the more baffling” says Anne Kothawala, president and CEO of the Convenience Industry Council of Canada.The Ontario government is currently considering both a flavour ban and a nicotine cap for the sale of vapour products sold in convenience stores, but not specialty vape shops or online retailers.

Starting on Canada Day, British Columbia will add provincial sales tax to all carbonated beverages that contain sugar.The new rules span bottled and canned soda, as well as beverages dispensed through soda fountains, soda guns and vending machines.Finance Minister Carole James announced in her budget last week that the 7% provincial sales tax will takes effect on July 1 and is expected to generate $27 million in revenues in the 2020-2021 budget year.Belgium, United Kingdom, Mexico, Chile, France, Portugal, Norway and Hungary charge an excise tax of 20% on such drinks, while eight cities in the United States also levy sugar taxes, including Berkeley, Calif., where a University of California study published last year in the American Journal of Public Health found sugar-drink consumption was down almost 52% in some neighbourhoods and water consumption was up 29%.The B.C.