From: The Prince George Citizen
Frank PEEBLES / Prince George Citizen
Prince George has a contraband cigarette issue with widespread consequences to society, a new study has revealed.
The Western Convenience Store Association commissioned a private investigation of the smoking being done in B.C. and found there is a deep, provincewide foothold in the cigarette market of illegal smokes. Prince George was among the top five worst offenders among the communities surveyed.
“We studied three sites in Prince George and between them it worked out to an average of 17.4 per cent contraband cigarettes, just about bang on the provincial average of 17.2,” said Andrew Klukas, president of the WCSA. “In Prince George there was another signal to be concerned about. Each site was pretty much the same in their results, there wasn’t a lot of variation, which is a bit unusual. What that tells us, and it’s disturbing, is that in Prince George there is such a solid distribution service that it spreads evenly all across the city.”
