Andy Morrison - Global Forum for Nicotine talks
The GFN harm reduction roadshow ended up in Glasgow
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by Dave Cross
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Glasgow was an appropriate stop for the GFN’s “harm reduction roadshow”, as Gerry Stimson called it. While 19% of men and 15% of women smoke tobacco cigarettes across the whole of the UK, the rates in Glasgow are much higher at 27% of the population (4% higher than the Scottish average). Plus, in deprived parts of the city, smoking rates can soar up to 65%. Combatting tobacco and the harm it causes is a big challenge for Scotland’s largest city.
Morrison opened up his talk by referring to himself as “an anecdote”. So often, when trying to convey the benefits of vaping to public health ‘experts’, vapers are dismissed as offering nothing more than an anecdote and not real evidence. Each vaper has an individual story of how vaping helped us to quit, we all have our tales to tell, all of us are anecdotes – and so Andy offered up a collective noun for us all: “an evidence of anecdotes”.
Gerry Stimson explains the rationale behind holding the talks: “We have organised three events on e-cigarettes in Leicester, Liverpool and Glasgow. The idea is to open up for discussion many of the issues about the use of e-cigs, and, in particular, bans on vaping – where they have them, where they’re justified and what can be done about them.
Andy’s story will mirror those from many other ex-smokers. “They asked us to stop, they tried to force us to stop – but we found the solution ourselves. Except that this isn’t good enough for them either, now they’re attacking nicotine…except for the stuff in your patches, your gums, the stuff they can sell you over the counter. It’s not their solution.”
Morrison’s take plays back into the way Stimson framed the talks at the outset. While our government might have taken a benign approach to regulation, there is a creeping agenda of bans being rolled out across the country “by transport operators, by pubs, venues and stadia and so on.” In fact, Gerry Stimson relayed his own anecdote of how Doctor Konstantinos Farsalinos was threatened, by a guard, to be thrown off the train to Leicester because he was vaping.
The only downside to this excellent venture was the absence of people like Martin McKee, the very individuals who would benefit the most from engaging in a constructive dialogue. Maybe next year?
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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