public health v tobacco prevention

public health v tobacco prevention

There seems to be a certain difficulty for advocates dealing with tobacco to get from the evidence of harm in the public health and the effective reduction of this harm within the realm of social norm change. Many of those involved in tobacco control are actually working within the health care community. This is to be expected. The relationship between tobacco and disease is what prompts our interest.

The traditional dichotomy is a matter of treating the addiction to nicotine and the matter of preventing the onset of addiction. Both motivated by the prevalence of tobacco related disease. But the difficulties are not merely between these perspectives but also in the reluctance of advocates from all perspectives to recognize the culpability of those that profit from tobacco.

choice

The tobacco industry claims that tobacco marketing is a matter of enticing adult smokers to particular brands. The concept of addiction is underplayed regardless of the evidence of the tremendous power of nicotine to addict. While brand promotion is most certainly an aspect of their focus further deconstruction reveals a distinct diversion of the blame for tobacco related disease to the user. 9 of 10 tobacco users are addicted before the age of consent. Locally and globally the poor and uneducated are more likely to become addicted to nicotine.

Are tobacco users without autonomy? Of course not, but that autonomy is most certainly colored by nicotine and the tremendous and sophisticated marketing budget tobacco companies expend.

Somewhere in the mix of ostensible tobacco free advocacy is a confusion about the cause of tobacco related disease. Tobacco hasn’t been a benign weed for nearly 400 years. The historical weed is rather incidental to those that profit from contemporary nicotine addiction.

Until tobacco control advocates recognize that the harm from tobacco is profit driven, and of a magnitude without precedent, we miss the opportunity for real prevention.