Kids get illegal cigarettes too easily: coalition

More needs to be done to stop children and teens from smoking contraband cigarettes, a coalition of health-care groups in Ontario say.

The Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco estimated more than 60,000 students in the province in grades seven through 12 are using contraband cigarettes.

It is a conservative estimate, Dr. Marco Di Buono, director of research at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, said Thursday.

The cigarettes from First Nations with peach coloured tear strips — as opposed to the regular yellow strips — are sold in clear plastic bags of 200.

"The continued widespread use of contraband cigarettes threatens to erase the progress we have made as a coalition to curb and eliminate smoking among Ontario's teens," Di Buono told a news conference at the Ontario legislature.

Most smokers start before age 20. Of those who continue to smoke long-term, about half die from the health effects of smoking, including heart disease, lung disease and cancer, he noted.

Bags of contraband cigarettes can sell for as little as $10 to $15 a bag, which makes them the most common and cheapest contraband cigarettes, said Michael Perley, director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco.

The lowest price discount brand sold in convenience stores sell for about $5 for a pack of 25, he said.

"It's not difficult to make a couple of phone calls and have a car at your school dropping off 200 cigarettes even in an hour," said 19-year-old Niagara resident Emily Butko, who represented the Canadian Cancer Society Ontario Division at the news conference.

Young people are price-sensitive, agreed 18-year-old Toronto resident Salvatore Anania. Contraband cigarettes from native reserves are sold as "natural" products.

It's a myth that native-manufactured products are somehow natural or safe, said Perley. All tobacco products cause harm because of the tar and carbon monoxide created by burning tobacco, not the additives, he added.

The coalition called for:

• More municipal police resources to enforce restrictions on contraband restrictions.
• Prohibit supply of raw material, including raw tobacco leaf, as Quebec has done, as well as cigarette papers and filters, to cigarette manufacturers that are not licensed in the province.
• Reform the provincial quota system that allows Canadian tobacco companies to supply tax-free to First Nations, since some of these are resold to non-First Nations Ontarians. Saskatchewan for example has limited the amount of legal brands supplied tax-free to reserves.
• Require a health-based marking on cigarettes sold in the province, such as the toll-free number of the Canadian Cancer Society's helpline for smokers.

Perley said the Ontario government signaled to his group that it is focusing more attention on controlling contraband cigarettes, but there has been no action on budget, staff or start dates for the campaign.