The most popular vape in the United States is expanding north. JUUL will be available in Canada beginning in September.
JUUL Labs announced the move Thursday. According to a press release, the small pod vape with the huge nicotine punch will be sold in vape shops and on the company’s Canadian e-commerce site Juul.ca, but also in convenience stores.
C-store e-cigarette sales are a new phenomenon in Canada, since nicotine-containing vapes have been technically illegal until recently. Parliament passed a law to regulate and allow sales of vapes earlier this year. The tobacco industry is entering the new market too, and many observers are curious to see if JUUL overwhelms the Big Tobacco competition as they have for the last year in the U.S.
JUUL’s first product launches outside the U.S. were in Israel and the U.K., both this year. However, the Israeli government recently banned the JUUL, because of its high nicotine level. The British version of the JUUL conforms to the EU rules in the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which prevents all vapes from using nicotine stronger than 20 mg/mL, which eliminates much of the excitement of the American version that delivers nicotine with an effect similar to a cigarette.
The Canadian JUUL will use the same 59 mg/mL nicotine as the U.S. version. The JUUL starter kit in Canada will include the same four flavors as the American version — Virginia Tobacco, Mint, Mango, and Creme (called Vanilla in Canada) — and will sell for $64.99 Canadian, which is equivalent to the U.S. price of $49.99. Those flavors will also be available in JUUL pods, along with Cucumber and Fruit.