Black market blamed for stable smoking rates

Ottawa Citizen
Linda Nguyen

Canwest News Service

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The number of Canadians lighting up cigarettes has remained stable for the past three years, according to a national survey on tobacco use, released yesterday.

Results of the Statistics Canada survey found that one in five Canadians reported smoking either every day or occasionally in 2007, the same proportion as in 2005 and 2006.

This trend is troubling because analysts had predicted the rate was going to decline, the Canadian Cancer Society said yesterday.

"We're very concerned by these results," said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the non-profit organization in Ottawa. "The reason the smoking rate stopped going down is because of the serious contraband situation. It's completely undermining the progress we'd otherwise be seeing in reduced smoking."

On the black market, a carton of 100 contraband cigarettes can sell for as low as $6. The same amount in a store can cost $70, he said.

British Columbia had the lowest rate of smokers in the country, while Saskatchewan had the highest rate for the second year in a row, the agency said.

Fourteen per cent of Canadian households reported having at least one person in their home smoking every day or almost every day, the survey found.

In 2005, 18 per cent of those in the 15 to 19 age group said they were smokers. That rate dropped to 15 per cent in 2006 and remained stable in 2007, the survey said.

For those in the 20 to 24 age group, 26 per cent identified themselves as smokers in 2005. The following year, that proportion increased to 27 per cent. In 2007, that number decreased again to 25 per cent.