Association wants tougher penalties for people selling illegal cigarettes

MONCTON – An association of convenience store owners is calling for tougher penalties for people who sell illegal cigarettes based on research it commissioned in New Brunswick.

The Atlantic Convenience Stores Association hired Montreal research firm NIRIC to collect cigarette ends from 27 sites across the province in late May and early June for analysis.

Of the almost 4,000 cigarette ends that were collected, 24 per cent were illegal, while 26 per cent of those collected at 11 high schools had not been subject to tax.

This is the fourth survey the association has commissioned since 2013 and in all four of them the average presence of illegal cigarettes has remained steady in New Brunswick.

“We need tougher, tougher rules, tougher fines, we need them to crack down on this product,” said Mike Hammoud, the Association’s president.

“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.”

Hammoud says while the trend doesn’t appear to be growing, it is consistent and remains a serious problem.

The association says a crackdown on the sale of illegal cigarettes would lead to the government collecting more tax revenue from tobacco sales.

With files from Global’s Alex Abdelwahab