A big buyer of smuggled cigarettes in Canada has turned out to be high school students, according to another report by The Globe and Mail.

Three out of every 10 cigarettes inhaled by young smokers are from the unregulated black market, according to a survey of butts lying on the ground outside Quebec and Ontario high schools.

Conducted on behalf of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, the results found 24 per cent of cigarette butts at Ontario high schools - and 35 per cent in Quebec - were contraband.

In addition to high school students, the article also mentions the high availability of illegal cigarettes to mental health institutions.

Russell Callaghan, a researcher with Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, noticed a large number of patients were smoking illegal cigarettes, so he launched his own small studies.

He sent a 36-year-old research assistant to 115 independent convenience stores - meaning no chain stores - within two kilometres of the downtown hospital, to ask, “Do you have any native cigarettes?”

Of the 30 stores within one kilometre of the mental health hospital, 57 per cent were willing to sell contraband.

Cigarette smuggling is a $27.5 Billion industry.