The WHO's big anti-nicotine bash is over and the delegates have long since taken their first class flights home. So what happened? As usual, not a lot. Very little was agreed, mostly because the FCTC secretariat has become so extreme that it cannot get a consensus. It was hoping for an agreement to get a ban on cigarette filters. That got plenty of sensible opposition to that mad idea, as they did with advertising bans for e-cigarettes. Delegates agree to "consider" the WHO's loony "forward-looking measures" but that doesn't mean anything. The nutters who run this conference, including former UK civil servant Andrew Black, put a brave face on it, but very little was achieved.
The FCTC secretariat managed to squeeze in some mentions of "tobacco and nicotine products" into its closing benediction, but the WHO is doing that anyway. The real battle lies outside these shindigs. It is very clear that the Bloomberg/WHO approach from now on will be to demonise nicotine and portray harm reduction as an industry scam.
This will require some sharp U-turns given that nicotine products are on the WHO's list of essential medicines and "harm reduction" is an explicit part of the WHO's definition of tobacco control, but we're dealing with seasoned liars who face no pushback from the media so they have every chance of success. Look at this mental stuff from Quebec!
Speaking of a compliant media, here's how Health Policy News explains the flop that was COP.
‘Unprecedented Levels of Industry Interference’ Stalls Decisions on New Tobacco Products and Pollution at UNFCTC COP11
'Industry interference', the deus ex machina of "public health".
It's just so tedious. This conference, like the even more expensive climate ones, are simply a waste of time. As David Zaruk says, "as long as the organizers are beholden to the zealots and
billionaire prohibitionists, no one will notice and fewer delegates will
bother attending or contributing." Read his account and check out the musings of Maria Papaioannoy (pictured with me at Good COP below) here.
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