VANCOUVER, B.C. – For those seeking to avoid paying excise taxes by buying cigarettes on the black market, findings in Canada may discourage you from that.

The Vancouver Province reports that insect eggs, dead flies, mold and human feces have been detected in contraband cigarettes seized by authorities over the past year.

"You never know what you're smoking," Norm Massie of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the newspaper. "People think cigarettes are cigarettes are cigarettes. That's not true."

Canada Border Services Agency reports that it seized more than 177 million cartons of contraband cigarettes in the Pacific region alone between 2003 and 2006.

The problem of contraband cigarettes is particularly severe in Canada, which has relatively high excise taxes on cigarettes. However, the problem also exists in the United States as more states seek to raise revenue by raising state excise taxes (see “Up, Up and Away” in the May 2007 issue of NACS Magazine). Also, there are concerns that if Congress increases the federal excise tax on cigarettes that the problem could accelerate across the United States.