Smoking and the Price of Cigarettes in Ontario

Although recent trends in several indicators of tobacco use are positive, the individual and societal costs of smoking remain unacceptably high. More than 45,000 current and former smokers die each year in Canada due to smoking, and dollar costs attributable to smoking-related disease are $17.5 billion. This update summarizes the utility of increasing tobacco prices as an effective policy lever to reduce tobacco use and associated costs.