Three Must-Read Articles Supporting Tobacco Harm Reduction

These outstanding recent publications belong in every tobacco harm reduction library. 

1.  Dr. Lynn Kozlowski on e-cigarettes

Kozlowski, dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Buffalo, has published an excellent article in the Huffington Post (here) encouraging smokers to switch to e-cigarettes and encouraging the FDA to use light-touch regulation to keep e-cigs on the market and competitive with deadly cigarettes. 

Kozlowski is a giant in the tobacco research field and a long-time advocate of harm reduction.  He noted in 1984 (abstract here) and 1989 (abstract here) that smokeless tobacco conferred fewer risks to users and therefore might serve as an effective substitute for cigarettes.  He argued in 2003 that there was little evidence that smokeless use was a gateway to smoking, because the majority of users never smoke or smoked cigarettes prior to using smokeless (abstract here), and he has argued persuasively that smokers have a fundamental human right to accurate information about safer forms of tobacco use (abstracts here and here).

2.  Christopher Snowdon on tobacco harm reduction

Snowdon, author of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking (2009, available here), has published a devastating critique of the resistance to tobacco harm reduction in Europe (read it here).  He writes that “The sale of the two least hazardous recreational nicotine products – e-cigarettes and Swedish snus – are banned in many countries despite growing evidence that they can play an important role in reducing the smoking rate…The prohibition of safer tobacco products has led to unnecessary deaths in the European Union and elsewhere.  It is highly likely

that the prohibition and excessive regulation of e-cigarettes will also lead to unnecessary premature deaths.”

Snowdon argues that “The neo-prohibitionist approach is unjustifiable from the perspective of both personal liberty and population health.”  Although he focuses on the European snus ban and the strangulation of e-cigarettes by the EU tobacco directive, Snowden excoriates the FDA for making the designation of smoke-free tobacco products as “reduced risk” dependent on impossible-to-obtain proof that they won’t adversely affect population health.

3.  Thomas Lesnak on the booming cigarette black market

Lesnak, recently retired from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), writes in the Daily Caller (here) that the cigarette black market is worth $10 billion.  “That is the widely accepted figure our government estimates is lost each year from tobacco trafficking schemes,” he notes.

I recently described New York City as a “prohibition prison” (here); Lesnak agrees.  He writes, “When politicians say that increasing taxes lowers smoking rates, what they aren’t saying is that higher costs have driven a large percentage of the market – disproportionately youth smokers – to illicit cigarettes.  Millions of New Yorkers now reside within a short walk or a cab-ride from smoke shops that sell 200 cigarettes in plain plastic bags for $10.  Referred to as ‘rollies’ or ‘baggies,’ they feature no health warnings, and produce no tax revenue…Today, it is estimated that 60 percent of the cigarettes sold in New York City are illicit.  Most of these cigarettes are smuggled in from low-tax states like Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland.”

Lesnak correctly diagnoses the problem: “we’re criminalizing tobacco smokers, small and family retailers, and our youth, who are now forced into buying illicit products.  If these sound reminiscent of the failures of Prohibition, it’s because these are the same problems we faced early in the last century as a result of those similarly veined, well-intended policies.  We know exactly how that experiment turned out.  And yet, politicians continue to ignore those lessons.”

Unfortunately, the former federal agent also ignores the lessons of Prohibition and recommends the wrong treatment: “…stiffer penalties, well-funded enforcement, and stronger cooperation among agencies, as well as state and local governments.”  Such measures make the black market more violent and destroy government credibility.  There is little enthusiasm in America for penalizing personal behaviors, especially those that are enjoyed by millions of people.  Instead, politicians should eliminate prohibitive tobacco taxes, legislation and regulation.