Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Looks like the “cache” of smoking in Canada is starting to drop, for 15 to 19 year olds at least. Previously it was 19% of kids at that age that had themselves down as smokers, but that has dropped to 15%, which is good to hear. What is even scarier is in 1999 that number was 28%, which I hadn’t realized.

The other interesting question I have is how are these kids getting smokes? Isn’t it illegal to sell kids below the age of 18 (or 19) cigarettes? Are their parents buying it for them? I really hope that is not the case.

Health matters aside, I was wonder how much do cigarettes cost right now in Canada and found on the Non Smokers’ Rights Association web page a useful map of Canada with the price of 200 cigarettes for each province. A carton of cigarettes for Ontario costs $67.97 which if you smoke two packs a day (which I seem to remember was about average) lasts about 5 days, so that means you could save a lot of money just quitting smoking.

My other question is if these 15-19 year olds are managing to buy cigarettes somehow, how can they afford this? Time for a temperance video folks!

Related Links

• No Smoking in Ontario
• Cigarette Taxes going up in Ontario