Thetobacco industryprofits from youth smoking andits survival depends on marketing to school age children.
- More than a million cigarettes are smoked each day by school‐aged Canadians.
- Less than 1 in 10 cigarettes smoked by young people is smoked by a young person who identifies ‘native brands’ (contraband or untaxed cigarettes) as their usual brand of cigarettes.
- Provincial and federal governments collectively receive $83 million a year in revenue from tobacco taxes on cigarettes smoked by young Canadians, representing about $380 for each of the 220,000 young Canadian smokers identified in the survey.
- The most commonly smoked brands, representing three‐quarters of the cigarettes smoked by young people, are manufactured by multinational tobacco companies.
- Based on Health Canada’s estimate that tobacco companies make $4.43 in profit on each carton of cigarettes sold, and that retailers make $3 on each carton of cigarettes sold, industry revenues that result from young Canadians smoking totals $12 million per year.
- As Canadian youth reduce their usage of tobacco products, industry is refocusing their attention on countries with little or no tobacco regulation, with the expected result of a major health crisis in 3rd world countries in the next few generations.
