GFN•TV: News and Interviews

In the global war on nicotine, many are pushed to the margins. It’s not just smokers who no longer count. Adults who’ve already made the switch to safer nicotine no longer count. Independent vape retailers, consumer advocates and accomplished scientists and researchers are shunned and sometimes silenced. Even the proven real-world consequences of prohibition no longer count. Shot on location at the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, Poland, GFN organizer Paddy Costall reflects on 13 years of organized resistance to the moral crusade against safer nicotine.

Featuring:
PADDY COSTALL
Event Organizer, Global Forum on Nicotine
gfn.events

It’s no secret Big Tobacco’s legacy has complicated the case for tobacco harm reduction within public health. But long-standing distrust of the industry is also a barrier for many within the traditional drug harm reduction community, limiting support for safer nicotine products. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, Gaby Zabala Alemán explains how the National Harm Reduction Coalition is moving the conversation forward through bilingual resources and ten online modules designed for peers, social workers, nurses and people who smoke.

Featuring:
Gaby Zabala Alemán
THR Education & Engagement Project Manager
National Harm Reduction Coalition
@HarmReduction harmreduction.org

Prohibition cannot eliminate consumer demand. It’s an iron rule of free markets. As lower-risk nicotine products remain stuck under FDA review, illicit products proliferate to fill the void. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, Altria’s Dr. Mohamadi Sarkar argues that slow authorization decisions have left regulators playing enforcement “whack-a-mole” while adult smokers wait for more FDA-authorized alternatives.

Featuring:
DR. MOHAMADI SARKAR
Regulatory Science & Engagement, Altria
Affiliate Prof., Clinical Pharmacology, VCU
@AltriaScience

Among more than 100,000 people who used heroin in England, smoking accounted for 24% of premature deaths, nearly matching illegal drugs at 28%. Yet smoking remains routinely overlooked within drug treatment and harm reduction services.

Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, David MacKintosh of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction explains how integrating safer nicotine could deliver a low-cost, high-impact intervention that helps people live longer and healthier lives.

Featuring:
David Mackintosh
Director, Knowledge Action Change
Fmr. Chair of Trustees, Drug and Alcohol Services London kachange.eu

Europe is escalating its war on safer nicotine by pursuing new restrictions on vaping, nicotine pouches, flavors, and affordability despite overwhelming evidence that these products can displace smoking.

Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos describes the policy shift as a “tremendous setback.” He examines why Europe is abandoning common sense, refusing to learn from failed prohibitionist policies, and pushing a market serving millions of former smokers toward illicit trade.

Featuring:
KONSTANTINOS FARSALINOS, M.D.
Cardiologist, Public Health Expert
University of Patras, Greece
University of West Attica, Greece
ecigarette-research.org

Over seven out of every ten vapes sold worldwide now come from the illicit market. Worth an astounding $47 billion USD annually, the global black market for vaping products accounts for 76% of all vapes sold, dwarfing the legal trade and proving restrictions largely ineffective. Shot on location at GFN 2026 in Warsaw, Poland, Shane MacGuill of Euromonitor International explains how taxes, restrictions, product bans, and regulatory barriers are driving consumers into illicit markets around the world.

Featuring:
SHANE MACGUILL
Global Lead, Nicotine & Cannabis
Euromonitor International
euromonitor.com
@ShaneMacGuill

The battle over safer nicotine products is certainly about health, but it’s also about something more important: autonomy. As governments embrace nicotine restrictions driven by moral panic and public health paternalism, adult choice is increasingly treated as a threat instead of a right to be respected.

In this episode of GFN Interviews, Reem Ibrahim of Reason examines the growing conflict between individual freedom and population-level control. From disposable vape bans and black markets to anti-capitalist hostility toward tobacco harm reduction, Ibrahim argues public health is drifting toward prohibition and away from the people it claims to protect.

Featuring:
REEM IBRAHIM
Research Fellow, Policy & Media, Reason Magazine
@reemamiribrahim
reemabrahim.com

Episode originally aired on October 20th 2022.

It’s very clear that “the war on drugs has metastasized to a war on vaping,” says Dr. Alex Wodak, physician, and renowned leader of the drugs harm reduction movement. While tobacco harm reduction advocates will have to endure “fear and smear” campaigns by entrenched prohibitionists within tobacco control, THR will succeed in the end.

Featuring:
DR. ALEX WODAK
Physician, Internal Medicine
Board Member, Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association
Former Director, Alcohol and Drug Services, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney
Twitter: @AlexWodak

Twenty years after the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force, has the treaty lost its way? According to Jeannie Cameron, the answer is yes. Cameron is a tobacco policy expert with a background in international law who observed the FCTC negotiations from the beginning. She says a treaty once focused on reducing smoking-related disease has morphed into a global system hostile to tobacco harm reduction. From NGO influence and prohibitionist thinking to the demonization of safer nicotine products, tobacco control has drifted far from its original purpose and now risks lives.

Featuring:
JEANNIE CAMERON
CEO/Managing Dir., JCIC International Consultancy
Fmr. V.P. International, Juul Labs
Fmr. Head of International Advocacy, BAT
@JCICJeannie

Video originally aired on March 24th 2023.

Is the science publishing industry broken? Sarah Cooney doesn't think so. Learn more in advance of her keynote at GFN23.

Featuring:
Sarah Cooney
Scientist & Science Communicator
Former Head of Scientific Collaboration & Communication British American Tobacco, BAT
Director, Cooney Scientific Limited
@SarahCooneyMcQ