Nov 2, 2007
Kingston Whig Standard
The first large-scale survey of contraband cigarettes in high schools has found that at least 25 per cent of students are smoking cheap illegal cigarettes.
Researchers hired by the Canadian Convenience Stores Association – whose members sell tobacco legally and who have long been complaining about the damage their business is taking from smuggled smokes – analyzed more than 11,000 cigarette butts taken from public grounds around 55 high schools in Ontario and 50 in Quebec.
They determined that in Ontario, 24 per cent of high-schoolers' cigarette butts were contraband, while in Quebec 35 per cent of schoolyard butts were contraband.
In some schools, contraband butts made up more than 50 per cent of the total.
That is a result of the contraband cigarettes being more available in those areas, and while the Ontario study only looked at the GTA region, schools in this area would be comparable because of the easy availability of the cigarettes on the Tyendinaga reserve west of Napanee and on the streets of Kingston.
“The rampant use of these contraband cigarettes is a growing problem across Canada,” association president Dave Bryans said in a statement Thursday.
“We were absolutely shocked by the extent to which it is actually happening.”