Contraband cigarettes make it easier for teens to smoke: Nolan

Contraband cigarettes, which are cheap and easy to find, are a “key reason” the fight against teenage smoking has become more difficult, says Waterloo Region’s chief public health officer.
Dr. Liana Nolan said the percentage of Canadian teenagers who smoke has been declining for years. But over the last couple of years, with contraband cigarettes more available to teens, that decline has slowed down or been reversed.
Across Canada, 12.6 per cent of boys aged 12 to 19 said they smoked daily or occasionally in 2008, a slight increase from the 12.4 per cent in 2007, according to the Canadian Community Health Survey.
Only 10.1 per cent of Canadian girls in the same age group smoked daily or occasionally in 2008. That’s less than the 11.6 per cent who smoked in 2007. But the rate of decline is lower now than it was three years ago.
“We are quite concerned that contraband tobacco is a key reason for that,” Nolan said.
The contraband cigarettes, purchased on reserves such as Six Nations near Brantford, are very cheap because taxes aren’t paid on them. A bag of 200 cigarettes costs about $20. That’s a dime per cigarette.
And teenagers “are extremely price-sensitive,” Nolan said. “If it’s inexpensive and easily accessed, they will take it up.”
Contraband refers to any tobacco product that doesn’t comply with federal and provincial statues, including such things as importation, stamping, marking and paying the proper duties and taxes.
A study earlier this year of discarded cigarette butts found around high schools in Kitchener and Waterloo indicates that 23 per cent of them were contraband. That’s nearly one in four.
Local teens say they buy or are given the cigarettes by friends who buy them at the reserve.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police say 50 million cartons of cigarettes a year are manufactured in factories at the Akwesasne reserve near Cornwall, which straddles the U.S.-Canada border. Nine out of 10 of those factories are unlicensed by the U.S. federal government.
The cigarettes are taken by boat across the St. Lawrence River, where there are no federal officials to inspect them. Once in Canada, they’re taken to places such as the Six Nations reserve.
Nolan says it’s important to stop the illegal sale and distribution of these cigarettes so teenagers have less access to harmful tobacco. That’s where the energy of federal and provincial governments should be focused.
She doesn’t agree with some other anti-smoking activists, who think it should be illegal to smoke cigarettes if you’re under 19. Currently, it’s illegal to sell or give tobacco to anyone under 19, but not illegal to smoke.
“It wouldn’t be helpful to criminalize smoking,” Nolan said. “It wouldn’t be effective.”
Cigarette smoking caused 15.9 per cent of deaths in Waterloo Region between 2000 and 2004, according to a report presented to regional councillors earlier this year. Tobacco use is the most significant cause of preventable disease and death in Canada.