A “culture war” being waged by prohibitionist groups against tobacco harm reduction products is fueling the black market for vapes, heated tobacco, and oral nicotine pouches in many countries, according to health experts.
Dr. Rohan Andrade de Sequeira, a cardio-metabolic physician with extensive experience in India and the United Kingdom, cited India’s e-cigarette ban as a prime example of a misguided policy driven by this “culture war.”
“The ban actually led to a surge in youth vaping,” Sequeira said at the recent Global Forum on Nicotine. “A complete ban creates a black market for these products, removes regulatory oversight, and exposes users to potentially dangerous, unregulated devices.
“The moment the vape ban came into place, there was a sudden surge in the usage of devices among the youth, which basically did the exact opposite of what it was supposed to have done. There should have been a regulation,” he said at the forum held in Warsaw, Poland.
“Whenever you have any kind of prohibition, whether it’s drugs or alcohol, you just drive the whole thing underground,” Sequeira said. “And then you see this booming black market. You don’t have any regulatory control over that. You don’t get any taxes out of that. You’re getting products that have no quality control, no quality analysis.
“That makes the entire matter worse because now people are falling sick because of inferior quality products,” he said.
Sequeira also dismissed the notion that vaping is a “gateway” to smoking, particularly among young people.
“In 2018, there was a survey in India that showed 20 million kids aged 10 to 14 smoked at least five to 10 cigarettes a year,” he said. “That’s more than the population of some countries, and in the last 24 hours, 650,000 kids in India smoked a cigarette every day. What gateway are we talking about?”
Sequeira acknowledged that misinformation is also prevalent within the medical community.
“The issue is that 95 percent to 99 percent of doctors in India have no clue what THR is,” he said.
THR encourages safer cigarette alternatives that don’t burn and don’t produce smoke such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, and oral nicotine pouches. While these products have nicotine, studies show that because it does not burn and does not produce smoke, the risk of disease is significantly lessened. Nicotine itself doesn’t cause cancer.
The opposition to THR, fueled by opponents of smoke-free technology, is blocking public health efforts to combat smoking.
Dr. Marewa Glover, a leading public health researcher from New Zealand, said various groups are waging a “culture war” against THR, using various tactics to force their beliefs on others.
“As a professor of public health, I’m concerned about many threats to public health,” Glover said. “The strategies being used include canceling people and threatening those who won’t comply with their public health agenda.”
Glover said this discourages smokers from switching to potentially less harmful alternatives.
“One strategy in this culture war is to create polarization, split people, facilitate doubt, create fear, and encourage people to feel anger towards those people who have a different point of view,” Glover said.
Glover was among the panelists who discussed the nature of the THR debate, including the goals of different factions and tactics such as misinformation, emotional appeals, and personal attacks.
