Elephants and dinosaurs
Back in July I was interviewed by Tobacco Reporter’s George Gay.
George and I have been bumping into one another for more than 15 years, often at the annual Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF), or some Forest event.
The peg for the interview was Forest’s 45th anniversary, but since it coincides with the UK government’s plan to stop future generations of adults from legally buying tobacco it wasn’t something I wanted to celebrate.
I did however address the elephant in the room - the fact that, after 45 years, Forest might be considered a bit of a dinosaur, defending the right to smoke tobacco when there are ‘better’ (ie less risky) nicotine products available.
There’s a link to the article below but here’s a taste:
Simon Clark readily admits that some people, even some people operating within the tobacco/nicotine industry, see the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest), of which he is the director, as something of a dinosaur. Indeed, he feels it is part of his job to counter this idea by letting it be known that Forest is fighting for timeless principles—those of freedom of choice and personal responsibility.
Not only are these principles timeless, in fact; they are universal in the sense that they apply to all consumer products, not only tobacco in its smoked form, as the name of the organization suggests. For the past 45 years, while not promoting the consumption or use of any product, Forest has defended the rights of adult consumers, properly informed, to enjoy, without being harassed by excessive regulation, any product that may be sold legally in the UK.
But what is of course most impressive is that Forest, almost uniquely, has been willing to stand up publicly for the rights of cigarette smokers, who, though still amounting to more than six million people, have been treated like outcasts by much of polite society - like people of the wrong class, people considered to be without agency, without the mental capacity to make the “right” choices for themselves.
And, regrettably, it is not only the public health community that has tried to “denormalize” cigarette smokers in this way. In recent years, so too have large swathes of the tobacco/nicotine industry - those who would sell cigarette smokers alternative lower-risk nicotine products, some of them while still selling cigarettes. Many of these companies and organizations have acquiesced in the face of claims that smoking is a “problem” that must be solved rather than a legal activity that provides enjoyment, in various ways, to those who indulge in it.
‘Unfinished Business’ was originally published online in August but it has now been published in the October issue of Tobacco Reporter which is available in print and in a neat digital format on the TR website.
See also: ’Rebel With A Cause’ (Tobacco Reporter, 2017)
