Many countries have seen a huge drop in smoking rates, but Canada does not seem to be among them.
The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey showed that overall, about 18% of Canadians reported that they smoked every day or occasionally. This percentage has remained roughly the same since 2005.
The senior policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society, Rob Cunningham, feels concern for this slow decline in smoking. He feels the fact that contraband cigarettes are too widely available and extremely cheap.
In an interview he said, "These cheap cigarettes, which may be 80 to 90 percent off, are having an adverse impact on how fast smoking rates are declining."
Cunningham is urging parliament to take action to control this issue. However, all in all the smoking rate is comparably, and locking down on contraband cigarettes is not an easy task and could be a waste of tax dollars.
[Via: The Chronicle Journal]
