On the occasion of "World No Tobacco Day" on 31 May Imperial Tobacco (IT) Canada asked policy makers to review their tobacco control strategy and recognize the "dual realities of Canada’s legal and illegal tobacco markets".

In an open letter John Clayton, an IT vice-president, asked whether lawmakers considered the potential unintended consequences of failed “good” policies given the emergence of a thriving black market.

"Politicians see tobacco as an easy win," said Clayton in the letter. "We ask them to open their eyes and see that the real tobacco problem in Canada is not the regulated and enforced legal industry, where already over 200 laws and regulations exist, but rather the unregulated and growing illegal black market. Times have changed and tobacco control must change too." (ci)

The full text of the letter can be viewed here.