FCTC Secretariat relaunches plan for accelerated tobacco control, highlighting WHO's bureaucratic inaction (December 17, 2020)

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Global Strategy to Accelerate Tobacco Control 2019-2025 (GS2025). Described as "a blueprint for the global tobacco control community," this strategy sought to accelerate implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Two years later, one cannot help but notice the absence of any report on progress toward this goal-an absence that was made all the more glaring when the WHO relaunched GS2025 last month. Intended to coincide with what would have been the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the FCTC (COP9), this relaunch only highlighted ongoing failures in policy implementation.

The Irreconcilable Conflict Principle (November 10, 2020)

Sometimes defining an iron rule or governing idea and reorganizing our understanding of the world around it can be immensely revealing. Einstein developed the special theory of relativity from an assumption that the speed of light in a vacuum is unwaveringly constant. The most surprising results follow from that. Darwin showed that a simple mechanism, variation and natural selection, could explain much of the astonishing complexity of the natural world. Governing ideas are found everywhere: supply, demand and prices in economics; innocent-until-proven-guilty in criminal justice; and mutually assured destruction in arms control are further examples.

The Birth of Harm Reduction Informs the World's Need for Safer Nicotine (November 07, 2020)

Early in 1987 the Conservative government took the radical decision to provide sterile injecting equipment to people who inject in response to the HIV crisis. Only a few months before, it had run an anti-heroin campaign. Now it was giving out free syringes.

Tobacco Regulation: Who is Getting It Right? (September 30, 2020)

I recently addressed the 2020 GTNF conference on the topic of "who is getting tobacco regulation right?". My answer was blunt: at present, very few! If we were, we would not have eight million deaths a year from tobacco use. Nor would we have 1.3 billion people still using tobacco products, most in a toxic combustible or dangerous smokeless form. The goal of a regulator should be primarily to reduce that harm in the fastest possible time. Sadly, this isn't the case today.

State ownership of tobacco companies and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. (September 22, 2020)

The focus of this report is on the contradictions and conflicts experienced by governments that own major stakes in tobacco companies, yet are required to support tobacco control at the same time because they are signatories to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The broader tobacco control environment is not covered by the report, although the context is important.

Focusing on recent publication of Gaiha et al. (September 17, 2020)

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a challenge for the scientific community to publish results quickly, and publication often occurs at the price of quality and reproducibility, which in turn undermines the public's trust of science.

Government intervention in the market for electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). The known, the unknown and the challenges (September 08, 2020)

ENDS are considerably less harmful than cigarettes. Imposing the same tax burden on them (per unit of "harm") as on cigarettes leads to poorer health outcomes. Differential tax treatment of ENDS will encourage more cigarette smokers to switch to ENDS and could save millions of lives worldwide.

Overcoming barriers to disseminate effective smoking cessation treatments globally (September 08, 2020)

Major gaps remain in cessation products' availability and resource allocation for cessation services globally. Current licensed products are falling short on delivering and sustaining smoking cessation. Innovation in cessation products and services needs to build on learnings in nicotine pharmacokinetics, behavioural insights from consumer research and tap into 21st century tools such as mobile based apps. National implementation of FCTC's Article 14 needs to follow guidelines that encourage integration into existing health programmes and health-care practitioners' (HCPs) upskilling.

Perceptions of nicotine in current and former users of tobacco and tobacco harm reduction products from seven countries (September 08, 2020)

This study specifically assessed public perceptions of nicotine as opposed to products containing nicotine, which is the focus of previous studies. Apart from showing that consumers often incorrectly perceive nicotine and cigarettes as similar in terms of harmfulness, the authors highlight the need for more accurate and complete reporting by the media to clarify widespread misunderstandings and mitigate public uncertainty.

Goodbye Nicky hello Goldie - exploring the opportunities for transitioning tobacco farmers into cannabis production in Malawi (September 08, 2020)

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the opportunities for tobacco farmers in Malawi from diversifying to cannabis, and the potential benefits for reducing deforestation by producing a cannabis based alternative fuel. It further argues that there are tensions between the conflicting objectives of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.