The COP11 summit of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has shown something that can hardly enter the minds of many health workers and that is, that the organization has decided to negatively point out New Zealand, a nation that is on the verge of becoming the first “smoke-free” country, while rewarding the policies of Mexico, where smoking remains at much higher levels. This paradox shows how great the disconnection is between the prohibitionist ideology of certain organizations and the empirical evidence left by public health results.
The GATC (Global Alliance for Tobacco Control) has justified itself for awarding the satirical Dirty Ashtray award to New Zealand, alleging that the country had gone backwards in its laws, as well as an “alarming” increase in youth vaping. Now, official statistics refute this perception, since New Zealand has managed to reduce adult smoking to 6.8% (the fifth lowest rate in the world) thanks to a harm reduction strategy that combines dissuasive prices (almost 28 euros per pack) with the regulation of lower risk alternatives, such as vapes, to facilitate cessation.
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The new Anti-Tobacco Law confirms this: If a minor is fined up to 600 euros for consuming tobacco or vaping, their parents or guardians will be subsidiarily responsible for the payment.
The contrast of the figures
The WHO’s decision to reward Mexico does not correspond to the reality of its health data, since despite the official rhetoric against the industry, the reality is that its smoking rate stands at 15.4%, a figure that, to understand it, is double that of New Zealand, a nation that the organization has censored. This distinction seems not to take into account that the Mexican strategy, which has failed to stop consumption, while the New Zealand model, which is committed to harm reduction, is on the verge of eradicating the habit.
On the other hand, if we look at the analysis of internal management, it shows serious structural deficiencies. On the one hand, the tobacco tax has not increased in real terms since 2011, which keeps the price of a pack at just $0.70, an insufficient cost if the aim is to deter smokers. Added to this is that the constitutional ban on vaping devices has been counterproductive, since instead of eliminating their use, it has shifted demand towards a black market controlled by illegal networks without health supervision.
What’s more, the ban on vaping devices has led to a serious security crisis, handing over the monopoly of their distribution to organizations like the Sinaloa Cartel, which are already violently imposing their control over this new black market.
In this way, the Geneva summit has unleashed strong criticism, as experts accuse the WHO of putting its ideology of total prohibition before scientific evidence of what really works. Organizations such as CAPHRA report that the success of regulated alternatives, such as vapes, in reducing smoking, is ignored.
The danger of the “iron fist” is observed in Australia, because there, extreme prices and the ban on vaping have not stopped tobacco as much as in New Zealand, but they have created a dangerous black market controlled by international mafias.