Raise Tobacco Prices, Legal Age for Buying Them – Study
Would lead to drastic cut in number of smokers
A report prepared for the Ontario government is suggesting the price of a carton of cigarettes be doubled and ensure no one under the age of 21 is allowed to buy them. It also suggests a levy on tobacco companies. The report says this would help reduce the number of smokers in the province from 17 percent of the population to less than 5 percent by 2035. Ontario has the second lowest price per carton of cigarettes in Canada ($102.40). A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco says raising the price would only drive more customers to contraband cigarettes, which he says already account for 40 percent of the market. Sixteen-thousand Ontarians a year die as a result of smoking. Click here for more on this story.
