Your question relates to changing use and the prevalence of smoking, particularly in Quebec or in Canada. According to the Canadian Tobacco Monitoring Survey conducted by Health Canada twice yearly, the prevalence of smoking is continuing to fall among young people.
The only area where smoking has increased in the youth population is with respect to the sale of cigarillos. The Government of Quebec will now be introducing two regulations aimed at controlling the sale of cigarillos, because of the candy flavours being used, and so on.
If the contraband market did not exist, we would be seeing better results in terms of lower prevalence among young people. But there are fears. Because of the availability of cheap cigarettes, because of contraband, the progress observed in Quebec is starting to slow. We don't want to see the trends starting to be reversed. Remember what happened in 1994, when taxes were lowered: surveys were conducted at the time by the Department of Health. The fact is smoking rose dramatically among youth when that occurred.
Does that mean that there is no issue in the youth population as regards contraband cigarettes? No; there is clearly a problem there. And why does this problem exist? Because cigarettes are cheap. Even economic studies have shown this: if you increase the price of cigarettes by 10 per cent, the prevalence of smoking among young people drops by 12 per cent, because they have less spending power. Contraband cigarettes create a problem. That is why the Quebec Ministry of Health and Health Canada must continue their efforts to implement policies aimed at reducing tobacco use among the population as a whole, including young people. However, public education campaigns are also needed to raise awareness of this issue among Canadians.