The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco is making the rounds in the Maritimes to talk about the impact of the buying and selling of illegal smokes.
The Coalition’s Gary Grant says it’s not only the less affluent who are buying illegal cigarettes because of the price differential.
“We’ve seen a high percentage of contraband cigarettes around casinos, hospitals, government buildings. I know quite a few people that persist in buying contraband cigarettes because of the price and they’re professional businessmen and businesswomen,” says Grant.
Grant says it would be a bad idea for the federal government to pass a law stipulating plain packaging for legal cigarettes. He argues plain packaging would make it difficult to determine the difference between what cigarettes are legal and those that aren’t.
“It will be a windfall for the people that make the counterfeit cigarettes because they will easily replicate plain packages so it’ll lead to confusion with the consumer, confusion to law enforcement and it just opens the door for more contraband tobacco to be sold,” says Grant.
