ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF AN ILLICIT CIGARETTE MARKET: A STUDY OF PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS IN TORONTO, ONTARIO

摘要

Tobacco taxation is a key mechanism for reducing smoking consumption and prevalence in the general population. Few studies, however, have acknowledged the disproportionately heavy tobacco tax burden placed upon some groups-usually poor, marginalized populations-in the drive for population-based public health goals.1 Shelley et al.2 recently examined the relations between a large tax increase in New York State and the development of a pervasive, illicit cigarette market in a low-income minority community and described the financial burden of smoking among the poor who had not quit. Our letter extends these qualitative findings in 2 ways: by examining similar issues in a different marginalized, low-income population-psychiatric patients in one of Canada's largest psychiatric hospitals-and by quantifying the relative magnitude of illicit cigarette consumption in this population.