Toronto (ECN) - More teens across Canada are turning to contraband cigarettes, according to a study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
About 13 per cent of Canadian high-school students who are daily smokers regularly smoke illegal cigarettes, according to the study;
"Although the use of illicit substances by adolescents is well known, the use of contraband cigarettes in this age group is striking," says the study, which was led by Russell Callaghan, a scientist with the social and community prevention research unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
The report suggests that the majority of the contiband cigirates are coming from the first nations.
“The widespread use of First Nations (and) native brand cigarettes, especially in Ontario and Quebec, presents a serious challenge to tobacco-control strategies, which attempt to use accessibility and price mechanisms to influence adolescents’ smoking behaviour,” said Callaghan.
The researchers also found that smokers of these cigarettes consume about five more per day than smokers buying cigarettes from retail stores.
The study is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
