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If you think illegal cigarettes are a victimless crime, think again.

In Ontario, it is illegal for a smoker to be in possession of illegal tobacco products.1

And yet, Ontario’s illegal cigarette trade is one of the country’s fastest-growing industries. It is making criminals rich, endangering public safety, derailing public health, and costing the Ontario government over one billion dollars a year.

If you are smoking illegal cigarettes, do you know what you are buying? Do you know it is against the law?2 Are you okay with supporting organized criminal networks that are connected to drug dealing, human trafficking and gun violence?3 

EMAIL YOUR MPP

Can you spot the difference?

The cigarettes in plain packaging and with a large health warning are legal. The cigarettes in colourful packaging are illegal.

A pack of Canadian cigarettes
How do I recognize illegal cigarettes?

Illegal cigarettes are untaxed cigarettes that typically do not carry any tax stamps. They often come in colourful packages without the health warnings that legal cigarettes are required to carry.

It doesn’t matter how you come into possession of illegal cigarettes. Whether you are buying them at a First Nations “smoke shack” or from a friend or retail clerk, anyone without Indigenous status as defined by the Indian Act who has unstamped tobacco products is breaking the law.

Perhaps the most insidious thing about illegal cigarettes is the threat they pose to decades of public health efforts to get young people not to smoke. Youth smoking rates have been falling for decades. One of the ways governments discouraged youth from smoking was by raising the price of cigarettes—to keep young people from being able to afford them. But these high prices imposed on the legal market are also what made the illegal cigarette business possible because many adults are happy to find cheaper ways of smoking, even if it means breaking the law. But what about the youth? Now, illegal cigarettes are brazenly advertised to youth on social media sites and sold for as little as $30 per carton.4 These websites don’t even pretend to do an age check. And over and over again, many of these sellers of illegal cigarettes face no consequences. Ideally, the government should enforce its regulatory requirements in a manner that is uniform to all tobacco producers.
Over the years, what began as a cottage industry on First Nations reserves has been taken over by organized crime groups. At last count, there were 173 organized crime groups actively involved in Canada’s illegal cigarette trade.5 These organized criminal groups include known gangs that move illegal cigarettes from coast to coast and even beyond our borders. Canada is routinely identified as a source country for an outflow of this illegal product to other parts of the world. The criminal organizations still manufacture their illegal cigarettes on First Nations reserves because this helps them circumvent enforcement by the government, but these organized crime groups are taking all the profits from illegal cigarettes and reinvesting them in growing their criminal enterprise, as identified in National Policing Intelligence Reporting.6
Organized criminal groups have taken over the illegal cigarette industry because there is so much money to be made. The profit margins in illegal cigarettes are extremely lucrative.7 According to one study, trafficking illegal cigarettes can be up to eight times as profitable as dealing cocaine.8 Illegal tobacco is a high-reward, low-risk profit machine that organized criminal groups are using to grow their operations. This means that every time someone buys an illegal pack of smokes, they are not just dodging taxes. They are directly funding things that are destroying communities, like drugs, guns and human trafficking.

For mom-and-pop convenience store owners, illegal tobacco has hit like a tsunami, leaving nothing behind. These hardworking business owners rely on adult smokers purchasing legal cigarettes to keep their businesses afloat. In many communities, these businesses provide essential services to the rest of the population, things like postal services or essential goods that people would otherwise have to travel a long way to purchase. 

Convenience store operators are also often new Canadians working to build a better life for their families. They have watched their Canadian dreams disappear as their business is stolen by criminal networks, sometimes operating right outside their doors and often facing no consequences. 

What can I do?

Don’t buy it.

If you are an adult smoker, don’t buy it. You know that it directly supports organized crime.

Don’t stock or sell it.

If you’re a retailer, don’t stock or sell it. It undermines your industry, fuels organized crime and degrades the community.

Report it.

If you see someone selling illegal cigarettes, report them to Crime Stoppers.

Tell the government enough is enough.

Take one minute to send a letter to your MPP demanding action against this growing criminal enterprise.

Sources

1. https://www.ontario.ca/page/illegal-tobacco#:~:text=If%20you%27re%20convicted%20of,1%2C001%20to%2010%2C000%20unmarked%20cigarettes

2. https://www.ontario.ca/page/illegal-tobacco#:~:text=If%20you%27re%20convicted%20of,1%2C001%20to%2010%2C000%20unmarked%20cigarettes

3. https://icaie.com/2023/11/icaie-issues-new-policy-brief-on-the-growing-harms-of-cross-border-illicit-trade-vectors-and-threat-convergence-to-canadas-national-security-urgent-attention-and-action-are-needed/ (Pages 24-25)

4. https://icaie.com/2023/11/icaie-issues-new-policy-brief-on-the-growing-harms-of-cross-border-illicit-trade-vectors-and-threat-convergence-to-canadas-national-security-urgent-attention-and-action-are-needed/ (Page 25)

5. https://icaie.com/2023/11/icaie-issues-new-policy-brief-on-the-growing-harms-of-cross-border-illicit-trade-vectors-and-threat-convergence-to-canadas-national-security-urgent-attention-and-action-are-needed/ (Page 24)

6. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2021/scrc-cisc/PS61-39-2020-eng.pdf (Page 4)

7. https://icaie.com/2023/11/icaie-issues-new-policy-brief-on-the-growing-harms-of-cross-border-illicit-trade-vectors-and-threat-convergence-to-canadas-national-security-urgent-attention-and-action-are-needed/ (Page 24)

8. https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/mli-files/pdf/MLICommentary_May2018_Leuprecht_Fweb.pdf