GFN•TV: News and Interviews

Australia’s vape crackdown was supposed to curb youth use—but in practice, it has created prohibition by proxy. While still legal, access to nicotine vapes is tightly controlled and choice is so severely limited that over 90% of all vapes in Australia are purchased on the black market.

In this episode of GFN Interviews, Australian GP Dr. Carolyn Beaumont examines how this system frustrates access to safer nicotine—from restrictive product approvals to medical guidelines that offer little real support for harm reduction.

Featuring:
DR. CAROLYN BEAUMONT, MD
Australian General Practitioner/Family Physician

Episode aired originally on April 21st 2023.

When scientists study the chemistry of smoke versus vapor, they find a massive difference in complexity and measurable effect on the human body. Learn what those differences are in this fascinating interview with a top tobacco scientist.

Featuring: Dr Marina Murphy
Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs, ANDS
Former Head of Scientific Media Relations,
British American Tobacco
@ands_corp

The video originally aired on August 4, 2023.

There’s no debate allowed on vaping in Australia, says Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association and practicing tobacco treatment specialist. Tobacco control is “impervious to evidence” and quick to cancel anyone who speaks to the positives of vaping.

Featuring:
Dr Colin Mendelsohn
Founding Chairman Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association
Practising Tobacco Treatment Specialist
@colinmendelsohn

Governments insist their nicotine policies are “evidence-based.” But a closer look reveals cherry-picked findings, flawed comparisons, and sensational claims that don’t withstand scrutiny. In this GFN interviews, independent tobacco scientist Dr. Ian Fearon explains how weak research and distorted interpretations shape global nicotine policy. From the misuse of correlation to media amplification of questionable studies, Fearon shows how flawed science fuels prohibitionist thinking—leaving smokers misinformed about safer alternatives that could reduce the harms of smoking.

Featuring:
DR. IAN FEARON
Director, Independent Research Scientist
whatIF? Consulting, UK 

Sweden’s smoke-free success is often credited to snus, but that’s only half the story. While snus appealed to many men looking to quit smoking, for women the smell, taste, and feel left something to be desired. For years, women were left without a viable alternative. That changed with nicotine pouches. Tobacco-free, discreet, and socially acceptable, they became the missing solution. In this GFN Interviews, Carissa Düring explains why nicotine pouches didn’t just complement the Sweden Model, they completed it, delivering the silver bullet public health refuses to acknowledge.

Featuring:
CARISSA DÜRING
Director, Considerate Pouchers Sweden
Consumer Advocate
consideratepouchers.org
@carissaduring

A massive opportunity to reduce smoking-related death is being squandered. In this episode of GFN Interviews, cardiometabolic physician Dr. Rohan Sequeira examines how public health distorts the public’s understanding of nicotine and risk. With South Asia bearing an enormous tobacco burden, he explains why traditional cessation approaches are failing, why safer nicotine products matter, and how misinformation continues to block harm reduction.

Public health often warns about tobacco industry interference—but what happens when tobacco control itself is captured by benevolent donors and non-profit organizations? In this GFN interview, economist Roger Bate explains why the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is uniquely vulnerable to outside influence, how Bloomberg-funded NGOs shape policy agendas upstream, and why this system consistently excludes tobacco harm reduction despite strong evidence.

Featuring:
DR. ROGER BATE
Economist, Health Policy & Medicines
Nonresident Scholar, Intl. Center for Law & Economics
laweconcenter.org
@RogerBate3

America’s tobacco policy has turned self-destructive. Safer nicotine products are demonized and restricted while combustible cigarettes remain widely available. In this GFN interview, Michelle Minton of the Reason Foundation explains how fear, ideology, and institutional incentives replaced evidence in U.S. tobacco control—pushing consumers back toward smoking and undermining one of the greatest public-health opportunities of our time.

Featuring:
MICHELLE MINTON
Managing Director, Drug Policy Reason Foundation
reason.org
@michelleminton

YouTube’s new AI enforcement wave looks less like a policy update and more like the World Health Organization’s crusade against nicotine. In this worrying GFN Interview, GrimmGreen shows how safer-nicotine content is now being flagged as “medical misinformation” under rules that echo the WHO’s narrative: nicotine equals harm—no nuance allowed. After sixteen years as one of the most trusted voices helping adult smokers escape combustible tobacco, GrimmGreen is once again fighting to keep his channel alive.

Featuring:
NICK GREEN “GrimmGreen”
Vape Lifestyle & Advocacy, Content Creator
@GrimmGreen

Former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller—America’s longest-serving AG and a principal architect of the Master Settlement Agreement—joins GFN.TV with a clear warning: the U.S. is making extraordinary progress against combustible tobacco, yet the public isn’t hearing about it. Smoking has collapsed to historic lows, youth vaping has fallen 70% since 2019, and millions of adults have shifted to far safer non-combustible nicotine products. By any honest measure, it’s one of the most significant public-health successes in decades. So why isn’t tobacco control talking about it?

Featuring:
TOM MILLER
Former Iowa Attorney General
Founder, Miller Monitoring and Consulting, LLC.