For many years now, the issue of contraband cigarettes and smuggling have been in the forefront of our community. And for good reason. Few, if any areas in Canada have been affected as much as ours.
The latest information from the RCMP has over 30 illegal cigarette manufacturing plants -including up to 13 in Akwesasne -operating in aboriginal reserves between Six Nations and Montreal.
This newspaper regularly runs items detailing the arrests of individuals for smuggling contraband cigarettes. At times it seems like we could fill an entire page with these busts alone.
And while the total number of cigarettes intercepted continue to rise, even the police forces admit it is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the flood of tobacco sweeping across Ontario, Quebec and further afield.
This is nothing new. It just seems to be getting worse.
Why not? A bag of illegal smokes costs as little as $6. The same number, bought legally, runs around $85. That's a deal that is proving far too tempting for a lot of people, especially with the economy struggling over the past six or eight months.
However, the most disturbing information in the report is that the smuggling is perhaps having its greatest effect on teenagers. A survey of schools around the province showed that half of the cigarettes being smoked by students are contraband, while in low-income areas, the number climbs to 75 per cent.
It shouldn't be a surprise. One of the main engines behind the anti-smoking drives was to put the price out of reach of many teens by instituting higher taxes.
But as is always the case, people have found a way to subvert this. Clearly, the policy of increasing the price of cigarettes through taxes is no longer working. Smuggled cigarettes are too plentiful, too easy to access and too cheap to compete with.
There are two ways to combat the flood. The first is to go in and close down the operations. The other is to lower the taxes so that more smokers won't be tempted to take the contraband option.
The first is politically sensitive and a logistical nightmare. In light of the numbers, it's better to keep young smokers in a controlled environment. Yes, there is the chance of smoking increasing and revenues will be lost, but that is already happening.