I fully agree and support Mr. Damphousse's position.
There again, I have a feeling that people have forgotten that they were once 14 or 15 years old. We know what the reality is; the point is not to ignore it. In terms of the numbers for periods where there is said to have been a drop, that's fine if we know that the legal market corresponds to 100 per cent of the market. However, if we only know about 40 per cent of the market, as was the case in 1994, when we did not know what was happening with 60 per cent of the market—in my opinion, these statistics really don't mean much. That is the first thing.
But there is something else as well. What is terrible for young people these days is a whole series of circumstances. It is not just the fact that they will have access to tobacco or that it's cheap. We need to remember what we were like at that age. How does it work in a group of teenagers? First of all, it's a business. When you're under 18, you can do this, because no one can touch you. And once you get started, you continue to do it with other products; that's perfectly normal. That is the logical connection that is made. Access is open. This is a group fighting for a lot of money. And we are in the process of showing young people that the government is absolutely powerless, and that this is going to continue. They think it's absolutely hilarious. Have you seen them on television? They walk around with their bag and one says he got it for $5; the other, for $6. It's verging on the ridiculous. I talked earlier about the cynicism in society. And that is the stage we have reached now: young people are cynical about our way of enforcing laws.
In addition, we have to consider the network that this creates, and the street gangs. These young people are not learning to work at a steady job in our convenience stores; they think we're a joke. Why work for minimum wage when you can earn $2,000 a week as a runner? And they are untouchable, because they are under 18. That is the reality. That is why I don't like to hear people trying to develop these grand theories. Our values and our mores are appropriate, except that we now find ourselves in a situation where all of that has been distorted. That's why we all have to work together to return things to normal.
When things have returned to normal, there will still be campaigns and taxes, because there have to be. But we have to control this problem. I can assure you that it won't be easy. Because the message we are sending to young people is that there are easy ways of making money, and that smoking is cool and cheap. That is what has been happening in the last two years.