Despite decades of prohibition, smoking remains one of the leading preventable causes of disease and death worldwide. So why do policies that restrict safer alternatives often fail to improve public health?
Transcription:
GFN Streeters 2026 — street interviews (part 1)
Global Forum on Nicotine 2026
Brent Stafford 0:00:03
Prohibition and public health, do they go together?
Miguel Okumura 0:00:07
No, of course not. Prohibition, it's like the opposite. If you want to control something, you have to manage that. And it's the opposition of managing, because when you are prohibiting something, you are cutting any kind of conversation about that.
So I can't say about prohibition because in Brazil we live a prohibition of this kind of products and this kind of technology and in tobacco harm reduction itself is prohibited in Brazil and the result is The prohibition is not working. We have the biggest market of Latin America in Brazil. We have the majority of vapors in Brazil.
And it's 100% controlled by the illicit market.
Brent Stafford 0:00:52
But you can still buy cigarettes in Brazil, can't you?
Miguel Okumura 0:00:54
Yeah, of course. The cigarettes are protected by a federal law in Brazil.
Brent Stafford 0:00:59
How is that so upside down?
Miguel Okumura 0:01:03
I wish I can have this answer but to me as an advocate for harm reduction it doesn't make any sense because they have a protection by federal law to the cigarettes and they know and we know the risk of it. And to harm reduction products they expect to be 100% safe. And what is 100% safe? Not even water, bottled water is 100% safe.
Brent Stafford 0:01:31
So when you look at an event like GFN, why is it important?
Miguel Okumura 0:01:37
To me, it's an opportunity to expose the situation that we have in Brazil. Because Brazil, it's a vanguard of harm reduction in the general terms. Recently in Brazil, we have a new version of the PLANET, who translating literally is like the action plan to control the illicit drugs and alcohol, but not tobacco.
So to me, the spaces and the conversations that I can have here at GFN helps me to understand better, to have better arguments, to have better ideas, and to expose the situation that we are living in Brazil.
Brent Stafford 0:02:20
This year's strapline is prohibition and public health. Do those actually go together?
Alex Gogoana 0:02:27
Of course, the prohibition, we already learned that this doesn't work. We'll only encourage the grey market and especially the black market. For me, especially for us from Eastern Europe, we have a bigger problem with the new TPD that I think will come this year. I don't know what we will do. We will talk with our partners. We did a call to action.
We did a lot of call to actions. But the next step I think we will try to contact with our parliamentarians from Europe.
Brent Stafford 0:03:07
Has it gotten worse in Europe?
Alex Gogoana 0:03:10
It is worse because we also have taxation and the tax, especially in vaping, is really, really high. A bottle of liquid is more expensive than one pack of cigarettes. Yes.
Brent Stafford 0:03:31
What do you think of the WHO and their plan to eradicate all nicotine?
Alex Gogoana 0:03:36
Oh my God. I don't know what to say. We had some things. I was in a debate with a person from Romania who worked at WHO. They don't have really strong arguments. They have only statements. I cannot fight with that.
Brent Stafford 0:03:59
The strapline for this year's global form of nicotine, is prohibition and public health. Do those go together?
Sarah Cooney 0:04:07
They absolutely do not go together. I mean, the most alarming thing I've learned is yesterday's session on the illicit trade was completely shocking to me. I couldn't believe what I was... I mean, I knew it was a problem, but I didn't really... When you kind of hear the stories from the front line, it's completely shocking. But yeah, I mean, this is not working.
This is not working.
Brent Stafford 0:04:31
And Euromonitor International put the number at 47 billion U.S. dollars is the illicit e-vapor market worldwide, which is 76% of all e-vapor sales.
Sarah Cooney 0:04:45
I know. It's extraordinary. And I can't understand why governments and regulators aren't going to listen to these figures. I mean, the lost tax revenues for, you know, the knock-on effect in so many aspects of society. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. And 71% of the whole vapor market is illicit globally.
It's just, I mean, and it's only going to get worse as more bans come in and partial bans come in.
Brent Stafford 0:05:12
I mean, we're talking about cigarettes still being legal.
Sarah Cooney 0:05:15
I know, and that's even more crazy. It just beggars belief. I just, you know, I'm speechless by some of what I've learned this year.
Brent Stafford 0:05:25
It is true. Even for myself to hear those numbers, I had no idea it was that big.
Sarah Cooney 0:05:30
No. Well, and also I didn't know that 90% of the US market is now illicit. I mean, and that's a science-based market, but with a regulation that just isn't really working. I know they're trying to fix it, but it's not really working.
Brent Stafford 0:05:43
Yeah, they're not going to be... It's like draining an ocean with a teacup.
Sarah Cooney 0:05:47
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you just hope that things start to change faster. But, I mean, the guy from Mexico yesterday was saying that even if they change the rules about vapes, he feels it's lost to the cartels, that there isn't a way back from the illicit market.
Brent Stafford 0:06:04
It's, you know... Well, and in Mexico, changing that would mean changing the Constitution.
Sarah Cooney 0:06:11
Well, yeah, that's not going to happen anytime soon.