Every time any successful steps have been made in tobacco control in the last couple of decades—whether it's smoke-free places, restricting point-of-sale advertising, increasing pricing—the same argument is always brought out: that it will increase contraband.
I've had direct conversations with my provincial counterparts in Nova Scotia who deal with contraband tobacco. They clearly say that the information given to them by front groups, such as convenience store associations, is exaggerated and doesn't match up with their data on contraband tobacco.
I think we have to be very careful to keep contraband in the right context. It's always been thrown out as a way to delay and distract progress in tobacco control, and when those tobacco control measures have been implemented, we have not seen an increase in contraband—except in the nineties, when that contraband was being directly driven by big tobacco.