SMOKIN’ –
Jan. 21, 2026 – Ban flavored vapes and expect an increase in cigarette sales: It’s a familiar concept to experts who recognize the two as economic substitutes. Amid battles over access in the United States, tobacco harm reduction advocates can point to various research to make the case that far from being a trivial inconvenience, vape flavor bans seriously impede efforts to reduce smoking-related deaths.
Advocates in Canada—who successfully fought to push back a prospective federal flavor ban in 2025—have a compelling new resource of their own, after the November publication of a study concerning Canadian jurisdictions that have imposed bans.
“This is the first study outside the US to show that banning vape flavors causes a direct, casual increase in cigarette sales,” Michael Pesko, one of its authors, told Filter.
A health economist and professor of economics at the University of Missouri, Pesko said the study is critical because it shows that even in countries with very strict tobacco laws, flavor bans backfire.
Canada enforces a raft of tobacco control measures including a plain-packaging mandate and prohibiting most forms of tobacco advertising and promotion. But these efforts to make smoking less attractive failed to prevent a surge in cigarette sales once vaping was made less attractive.
