The National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco believes a proposed generational ban on the substance in this province could have unintended consequences on the illegal market.

Last month, the provincial government launched an online consultation process to coincide with changes being considered to legislation.

Included in that are changes that would ban the sale of tobacco products to people born after a certain date.

Coalition Executive Director Rick Barnum, who is also a retired deputy commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, says the proposed approach is interesting, but he has concerns about possible consequences of such a ban.

He says they have seen such an uptake with contraband tobacco sales that a ban of that nature would “absolutely throw piles of gasoline on top of something that is already burning pretty rapidly.” He thinks contraband sales would skyrocket as a result.

Barnum does believe a happy medium can be found in terms of a ban. He points to how Quebec is handling contraband. He says they have designated police resources to the issue, they are seizing assets immediately when people are caught with contraband, and they have the highest fines in the country.

He says the return on that model is nine times what Quebec is putting in, and their illicit market has dropped by 50 per cent. Barnum believes a ban, combined with that type of enforcement, could yield impacts never before seen across the country.