In this exclusive GFN News interview, Joanna Junak speaks with Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA Executive Coordinator, about the fallout from COP11 in Geneva and the controversial Dirty Ashtray Award given to New Zealand.
Transcription:
00:04 - 01:11
[Joanna Junak]
Hello and welcome. I'm Joanna Junak and this is GFN News on GFN.TV. The conference of the parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is now behind us. Over the past few days there were intense discussions, not so many decisions and some controversies, including the awarding of the Dirty Estuary Award to New Zealand. This symbolic award has sparked a lot of discussion about the direction of global tobacco control policy. Nancy Loucas, CAPHRA Executive Coordinator, is with us today to help us understand what's really going on. Hi Nancy, it's good to see you again. Could you please explain to us what the Dirty Estuary Award is?
01:13 - 02:33
[Nancy Loucas]
Hi, Joanna. Thank you for the opportunity. To start, what is the Dirty Ashtray Award? The Dirty Ashtray Award is awarded to individuals, organizations, or countries at the meeting of the Conference of Parties of the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control. And it is awarded because they are deemed to be obstructing global tobacco control efforts or promoting the interests of the tobacco industry. For New Zealand to get that award was really telling, let's put it that way. Number one, New Zealand has had a dramatic decrease in smoking since the enactment of the regulations that legalized vaping. It's interesting to see that the counter to that, which is the Orchid Award, was granted to Mexico, which is chaos, to put it mildly. How do I feel about this? Personally, I'm offended. But then again, like I said, it's interesting because The fact that they would give a country that has done something by implementing regulations and implementing policies to help their own people and that has drastically reduced smoking rate, a dirty Austria award, kind of tells you where the WHO FCTC is headed. And it's not in a really good place.
02:36 - 02:41
[Joanna Junak]
So why has New Zealand been criticized regarding its tobacco control policies?
02:44 - 03:27
[Nancy Loucas]
I think New Zealand has been criticized because they have fully embraced harm reduction. They have allowed for regulated vaping. tobacco, they've been very pragmatic and very progressive in terms of their tobacco control policy to things which are deemed to be naughty, let's just say, to the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control Secretariat and the NGOs that run the show because they are prohibitionists. They are anti-nicotine. They want people to do things their way or Not at all. So New Zealand did a win for their own country and then were shamed for doing the right thing by their people. And that is simply unacceptable.
03:29 - 03:35
[Joanna Junak]
And what is Kafra's stance on the award? And what is your personal view on it?
03:36 - 04:19
[Nancy Loucas]
Kafra... We all discussed about the Dirty Ash Tree Award in New Zealand, and we all are pretty much aligned both professionally and personally about this. It shows that the Framework Convention Secretariat is run by the NGOs, which in turn is run by Bloomberg-funded prohibitionists. You know, it's not about health anymore. It hasn't been about health for a while. And it's really sad because there's a lot of good that could be done. But when you spend most of your time shaming people for doing the right thing for their own country, then you've lost your relevance. You know, there's no integrity there. There is no, yeah, legitimacy, I guess, to the process.
04:22 - 04:32
[Joanna Junak]
Nancy, now that COP11 in Geneva is behind us, what message would you share with countries working to balance tobacco control and harm reduction?
04:34 - 05:24
[Nancy Loucas]
I would say to the countries that have been working towards getting harm reduction accepted and implementing it in their own countries to not pay heed to what the people there are saying, the prohibitionists, you know, saying that it's a tobacco company construct, saying that it's harm promotion. All these things are the bleatings of... people who are blind to reality, who live in silos, who don't see what's going on on the ground, and frankly, don't care what's going on on the ground. It's a sad state of affairs. And I think that, you know, they continue on this course. They are going to just severely damage their reputation and their legitimacy and their integrity to the point where no one will listen to them on other major issues like pandemics or, you know, health issues that could really...
05:24 - 05:48
[Joanna Junak]
benefit from a global group working together people are just going to say yeah the who and that's not a good thing that's a bad thing for all of us that's all for today tune in next time here on gfm tv or on our podcast you can also find transcriptions of each episode on the gfm tv website thanks for watching or listening see you next time