Lifesavers Branded As Astroturf
Australian doctors and psychiatrists have been branded as tobacco company stooges.
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by Dave Cross
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Doctors have joined British American Tobacco in calling for Australia’s government to make electronic cigarettes easily available to the nation’s smokers. They state that vaping offers greatly reduced harm and can really work for heavy smokers who have failed with all other approaches to quitting.
Dr Alex Wodak heads up the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, he said: “It's very important, in harm reduction and public health generally, to have your intervention be attractive to the people most at risk. I think having a vibrant vaping community network, through the distribution of vaping shops, is very important from a public health perspective.”
Dr Colin Mendelsohn added: “The reality is that many smokers are unable or unwilling to quit. We can't just sacrifice them.”
But a Sydney Morning Herald journalist dismissed their points with a wave of the hand and a garland for Simon Chapman. They were both exceptionally dismissive about the “I Deserve To Be Heard” campaign. Smokers and vapers were encouraged to make submissions to parliament.
“[Tobacco companies have] been actively recruiting people to put in submissions,” said “World renowned tobacco control expert” Simon Chapman. “These are exactly the same tactics they used for plain packaging. They have dusted off the same software, the same template and just changed the content.”
It’s all “astroturfing”, said the retired man with little else to occupy his time. Chapman would have everybody believe that such activities just attempt to create the impression of a big pro-vaping movement – but he states it doesn’t exist. None of our 50,000 or so forum members exist. None of the thousands of Facebook vape groups exist. No, according to Chapman, we are all Big Tobacco lies.
To whip up the feelings more, suddenly stories about Australian children smoking are bubbling up in the media. “At my school you can come with bright blue hair and metal in your face. And if you need to have a smoke, that's OK too,” a head said according to Australia's Daily Telegraph.
Yet the toing and froing does nothing but mask the reality of the situation, one exemplified by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. They point out that patients are dying early, “the mentally ill were more likely to smoke and be heavy smokers, cutting their life expectancy by 20 years compared to the general population.”
But then Chapman would probably say the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists are astroturf too.
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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