GFN•TV: News and Interviews

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.

The World Health Organization is no longer just fighting smoking—it’s waging an ideological war against nicotine itself. In this blistering interview, former WHO official Professor Tikki Pang exposes how the global health establishment has become evidence-blind, influenced by Bloomberg funding, and driven by a moral crusade that erases the distinction between smoking and safer alternatives. From “harm is harm” rhetoric to regulatory capture, Pang warns that WHO’s stance is fueling misinformation, stifling science, and putting millions of lives at risk.

Featuring:
PROF. TIKKI PANG
Former Director, Research, Policy & Cooperation
World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Public health’s war on nicotine has spiraled into hysteria—untethered from science and reason. In this hard-hitting GFN Interviews, addiction specialist Dr. Garrett McGovern exposes how ideology, fear, and institutional ego are driving the misinformation crisis around vaping and safer nicotine products—and why it’s time to bring smoking harms back to the center of the debate.

Featuring:
DR. GARRETT MCGOVERN
Medical Director, Priority Medical Clinic Dublin
GP Specialising in Addiction Medicine
@AddictionsPMC