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Today’s Blog Post
Oh Boy… Am I ever glad that I don’t smoke!
But Peterborough also has another side of it that is known locally and a not so nice feature. It is quickly becoming the Cheap Smoke Capital of Canada as a City. Within a short drive of our city one can buy Cigarettes for way less money than what the local stores can sell them.
How much cheaper are they? Well locally the store sells the equivalent 200 cigarettes for about $70 – which is one carton of 10 packages. Just a short distance away you can buy cigarettes in a plastic bag for just $6.00 !!!
If you know that there is this bargain waiting for you to pick up so close by, wouldn’t you take advantage of it?
I am a Non Smoker… I am not involved in having to find one or two packs a day for my habit. I do not have to find between $7.00 to $14.00 per day for the Smokes… or $49 to $98 per week… or $200 to $400 per month.
Smoking is very expensive.
According to John Clayton, VP of Corporate Affairs at the Imperial Tobacco Company that cost of cigarettes in Ontario will climb an additional $5 to $6 on an average carton of 200 cigarettes with the addition of the new HST.
As a Non Smoker it is easy to say, “Stick it to the Smokers, they should stop anyway!”
But that isn’t going to happen too soon. It is an addiction that is very hard to stop or get off of. Millions of people try each year and I can guess that Millions or people less a few fail.
Now add on more factor if you are a teenager with little of no money coming in… how can you buy Smokes that you so desperately need to feed your habit? Studies have shown that around 30% of the Teen Population now smoke – down from 44% in 1981.
In Peterborough you need only to get your friend to hop in his car and drive not far from our city to a Cheap Smoke Shop where you can get a Plastic Bag that is hanging heavy with brand new cigarettes.
And one further thing, if you are an enterprising young person you can sell the bags of smokes for a mere $10 and make enough to pay for your fuel costs. In fact if you pick up 10 bags, which is only $60, you could make $40 on that one trip – paying for your own smokes and getting some fresh air in the country.
Now it is not only Teenagers that drive there, but also the Ontario Works (Welfare) folks that I know…along with the people that are on disability pensions… and now a growing number of smoking seniors that get some one to get them smokes from the Cheap Smoke Shops!
And when some one is desperate locally and wants to Bum a Smoke off you… no more Bumming… it will cost you only 25 Cents… that is a bargain – 10 cents less than a Cig in the pack. Do you now that an enterprising Teen can make $40 profit at 25 cents a smoke – just like the Government!!!
This is a problem for the Government in that they are in the business of making their money from Smokes. And if a teen messes with the Gov they will get in trouble – right? Nope. What they are doing is perfectly legal… buying smokes in a Cheap Shop and then taking advantage of local addictions with a drug that is NOT ILLEGAL.
The government gets the following…
In 2003 the prices were broken down this way…
Carton of 200 cigarettes
The manufacturers' price (as of October, 1997) is $9.69.
The federal excise duty is $5.50.
The federal excise tax is $2.66.
The provincial tobacco tax is $4.70.
The wholesale/retail margin is about 17%, or $3.83.
There is a 8% provincial sales tax, amounting to $2.11.
The federal G.S.T. adds 7%, or $1.86.
The total price is therefore $30.35.
But this is not 2003 – it is 10 years later and our Government decided to jack up the taxes just a little higher… to make the costs now $70 a carton with the hated HST factor coming to add another $6 = $76 per carton soon.
The robbery reports in Peterborough have climbed and the targeted places have lost lots of cigarettes. Stealing something this valuable is easy and light to carry… and can be sold as well… easier than the plastic bags that are hard to carry in your pocket.
Why is Peterborough a capital for Cheap Smokes? Well just south of Rice Lake is a whole series of Cheap Smoke Shops. How can that be? Well they are situated on Aboriginal Land and that is legal for them to sell this way… and with no taxes!
In fact we have more than one Aboriginal Land areas near us.
Shopping is good there. One company sells computers at a very much reduced price because there is NO TAX on their machines. And for a short drive into the country to get some fresh air you can also get some bargains. Forget about going to the USA to save money! And this is all legal and just.
Many local convenient stores between Peterborough and Montreal are thinking of giving up. The Smoking Traffic are their main source of impulse buying… and when people no longer come in for the $76 cartoon of Cigs – chocolate bars don’t make enough!
In a completely different direction… A Revised History
About 500 years ago Canada was discovered by some enterprising Explorers and Conquerors – Columbus being one of them. Sir Walter Raleigh was another. From some of the stories that I remember from way back… these Explorers and Conquerors found not only a land….but also Tobacco that the Local Aboriginals had for their personal use.
There were no taxes then and no Government Regulations on Tobacco use or abuse. Up to that time people coming as Explorers and Conquerors did not die from Lung Cancer and their Teenagers never smoked. The worst they experienced or could offer was some horrific disease such as Cholera, Small Pox, and other little nasty bugs that they brought with them.
So being practical people that liked a good barter system – we traded with the Aboriginal People… their Smokes for our Diseases.
Our Diseases killed off a lot of them… and we got control of the land and developed their Tobacco Industry. They were rather inept at developing this product anyways... using it only for worship and cleansing of their minds!! They had no paper to ‘roll their own’ and they wouldn’t have the ability to design a filter like we did.
And to think the Aboriginal Population that existed prior to the Explorers and Conquerors missed the biggest Tax Grab ever… where they could have been Taxing their Smokers to Death and provided a tax system to nail the newly arriving Immigrants! WOW! They sure needed us to educate them… didn’t they?!?
Wow… just think of it… we conquered this country. What a feat?!
Now the Aboriginals are selling us Cheap Smokes that avoid the Government interference and miserable Tax Laws.
Wait a minute… the Cheap Smokes that the Teenagers, Seniors, Welfare People, Disabled People and the average citizen buys on the Aboriginal Land at the Cheap Smoke Shop is now killing us off at an alarming rate!
Someone changed the story here. The Cowboys always won in the Western Movies. The Indians (sorry – politically correctness makes it known that they are Aboriginals) always fell off their horses dead when we conquered the East, Central and West.
We are not supposed to DIE! We are the Conquerors… they are not!
Oh Boy… Am I ever glad that I don’t smoke!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/illegal-smokes-hit-all-time-high-group/article1528818/
Tobacco in Canada
http://www.euromonitor.com/Tobacco_in_Canada
Affects of Price of Smokes on Youth
http://www.cps.ca/English/statements/DT/dt97-01.htm
Price of Smokes in Canada
http://www.nsra-adnf.ca/cms/index.cfm?group_id=1199
John Clayton, VP Corporate Affairs, Ontario Pre-Budget Consulation Speaking Notes
http://www.imperialtobaccocanada.com/groupca/sites/IMP_7VSH6J.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DO82GTV2?opendocument&SKN=1
Additional Notes:
As price appears to be a major determinant of the frequency of smoking during adolescence, the current taxation policy with respect to cigarettes and other tobacco products should be reviewed on an urgent basis. Tobacco taxation policy should aim to produce cigarette prices that are sufficiently high to deter regular smoking among adolescents.
Tax rates should apply equally to all tobacco products, including alternates to commercially purchased cigarettes such as ‘roll-your-own’ cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco and snuff.
Governments should take appropriate measures to discourage unlawful movement of cigarettes across provincial and national boundaries.
Educational campaigns regarding lifestyle, behaviour and the untoward health effects of smoking should continue and should be targeted at preadolescents, adolescents and women of reproductive age.
Research to address the need for development of effective educational programs aimed at presmokers should be fostered. Such research should also improve our understanding of adolescent motivation in adopting the use of tobacco products.
Stringent restrictions on tobacco advertising should continue to be applied, notably with respect to television and other media that influence preadolescents and adolescents.
Health professionals and all concerned Canadians should continue to counsel government against allowing tobacco-related sponsorship of high profile sporting and artistic entertainment events.
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