Transcription:
Hello Roberto, it's nice to see you again in Warsaw.
Can you tell us what do you think about this year's GFN conference?
Well, this year was very animated, lots of people.
Some people didn't come, some people were expected to see, but this is normal.
Sometimes people come, and I like it very much.
I noticed there is a lot of interaction, there is now a crowd of people that comes all the
time, and we start being like a global family.
And I enjoyed many of the talks, for example, Professor Newhouse, fantastic, and all the
panels, the discussion, excellent.
We are optimists.
This is one of the results of this conference, it lifts your soul, and we feel that we are
doing well, because we are facing a global technocracy, very well-founded, and very resistant
to dialogue and debate, but nevertheless, we go on, we continue, we continue.
And I also was surprised that my presentation was so much liked.
Yes, that's true.
What are your thoughts about you gave this year's Michael Rosen Oration speech?
What are your thoughts?
I think that we are facing the opposition to tobacco harm reduction, it's made of people
that are very puritanic, they are very serious, and they are saving the world.
So we have to put some humor, because humor is one way to connect with people.
And especially we are facing people who are so humorless.
And so I put a little drops of humor, and I did not suspect that they were going to
be so liked, so enjoyable to many people.
And I'm very happy, I'm very happy that it was an excellent momentum of communication.
And this year's strapline is tobacco harm reduction the next decade.
What do you think needs to change in 10 years?
Well, I think that the opposition to tobacco harm reduction is going to enter a lot of
contradictions, mainly that most of the smokers are in East Asia, and they are served not
by the tobacco companies we know, but by the national tobacco companies of China, India,
Indonesia, Thailand, and the approach, the traditional approach, the MFOWER and so on,
is not working there.
It's not working there.
And sooner or later, they will have to be accountable, because they have not been successful.
There's 1.3 billion people smoking, in spite of all the measures and so on.
So I think that at one point, they will have to be accountable.
And one of the issues that they will be forced to deal is why they have been rejecting products
that reduce the risks, that allow people to continue the consumption of nicotine at much,
much, much lower risk.
They will have to, at one point, they will have to respond for that.
They have to be made accountable, and they must be subjected to scrutiny.
This idea that technocracy decides everything in a vertical way is not acceptable.
And I think that in a few years, this will happen.
Great.
Thank you, Roberto.
Thank you.