A quarter of cigarettes in New Brunswick are illegally sourced according to the Atlantic Convenience Stores Association.
President Mike Hammoud says the most alarming trend is the average of 26% of illegal cigarettes showing up at the 11 high school sites they tested.
He adds New Brunswick is 10% above the national average for compliance when it comes to IDing youth.
“We’re doing what we feel to be a fantastic job of keeping this product out of the hands of youth, but the unfortunate thing is that this contraband tobacco is putting it back in their hands,” says Hammoud.
Hammoud says the provincial government needs to introduce more comprehensive legislation with stiffer penalties to really crack down on the illegal cigarette industry.
“People believe that it is a selfless crime that they’re not hurting anyone but government when they’re purchasing this product but there is a lot of negative tied to this,” says Hammoud. “This is organized crime that is selling this product and moving this product across the country.”
He estimates the province loses between 20 and 25 million dollars in revenue in each year because of contraband cigarettes.
