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Barrie high school students are smoking cheap contraband cigarettes and a national organization wants them to them butt out.
But the local health unit is suspicious of its motives.
The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco (NCACT), which is dedicated to fighting the spread of illegal cigarettes in Canada, is bringing together people and businesses who want to fight the problem.
During a study conducted at four Barrie high schools — Barrie North, Barrie Central, Bear Creek and Eastview — in May and June and commissioned by the coalition, 28% of cigarette butts found by researchers were from contraband tobacco.
“Kids, who shouldn’t be smoking at all, are having no trouble getting their hands on illegal cigarettes that cost pennies apiece,” said NCACT spokesperson Gary Grant.
“For a third year running, this study shows that youth are a primary target of the thugs at the end of the contraband-tobacco distribution chain,” he said.
“These cheap and easy-to-get illegal cigarettes are being smuggled and sold throughout Canada in record numbers and quietly undermining government anti-smoking programs,” the coalition’s website states.
“The tragedy here is that contraband tobacco has short circuited all the government’s antismoking efforts. Taxes, health warnings, display bans, mandatory ID checks and government anti-smoking initiatives are all going up in smoke because of the wide availability of illegal cigarettes,” Grant added.
The NCACT held a public meeting in Barrie last night. Promotion for the event stated that “Kids are getting hooked on illegal cigarettes. Help us stop it now.”
But the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit is leery of the coalition’s motives.
On its website, the coalition, founded by the Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA), states its mission is to raise public and government awareness of the severity of the problem posed by contraband cigarettes.
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Current members of NCACT, who have links on the coalition’s website, include the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers, the Customs and Immigration Union, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Frontier Duty Free Association, Toronto Crime Stoppers, the National Citizens Coalition, the National Convenience Stores Distributors Association and the Retail Council of Canada.
The Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers’ Council is also listed as a current member.
Leslie Gordon, the health unit’s tobacco program co-ordinator, said the coalition’s motives are suspect.
“We recognize this public forum for what it is: the tobacco industry trying to get behind an issue that, at the end of the day, is all about protecting their sales of tobacco,” she said, adding the health unit was never invited to attend the meeting and wouldn’t have gone if it was asked.
“We would not be willing to in any way legitimize what is obviously a self-serving public-relations event to promote sales in convenience stores,” Gordon said.
Coalition spokesperson John Perenack said its members are united in their fight against illegal smokes.
“Every one of them is aligned in their concern about contraband tobacco for public safety and crime, youth smoking and fairness,” he said.
“The Canadian Convenience Stores Association has made a big issue with stopping youth access to tobacco in stores through their ‘We Expect ID’ program, but they’re also working with the coalition because this is a business issue for small, family-run convenience stores,” Perenack said.
Gordon does not buy into that argument.
“It would be naive to think that their motives are any different today than to make sure money spent on tobacco products flows into their pockets,” she said.
“We don’t know all of what goes into contraband tobacco products besides tobacco, but the tobacco alone, in either contraband or legally produced cigarettes, will do great harm to their users,” she said.
source: http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com