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Re:Smokeless Tobacco
Sally Satel MD · 02/02/04 at 1:03 PM ET
You are correct in speculating that harm reduction for smokers runs afoul of politically correctness. The anti-smoking groups (eg: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Legacy Foundation) and a number of public health officials (eg: David Connolly of the Massachusetts Department of Health) are highly critical of snus. Their resistance seems rooted in a combination of ignorance (some simply do not seem familiar with the data that Dr. Brad Rodu has produced -- see his earlier e-mail in this thread); blind hatred of tobacco companies; and an anti-corporate animus in general. As a clinician who works in a methadone clinic, I find it frankly bizarre that there is support in public health circles for harm reduction strategies regarding hard drugs, onthe one hand, but hostility toward harm reduction and smoking, on the other. In the name of harm reduction, then, we have needle exchanges, RAVE safety advocates,low-dose methadone clinics, moderation management (for alcohol abusers who shun AA and abstinence) and even discussion about adopting European-style heroin distribution. The idea, of course, is to decrease the physical consequences of drug and alcohol use among people who wish to continue use. An idea with merit, even if one disagrees with some of the strategies. Thus, users of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and alcohol are "permitted" to be beneficiaries of less physical harm while continuing to participatw in the illicit economy and risk the dangers -- to self and other -- of intoxication. The snus user harms no one and enjoys a benefit to his health that is undeniable (no risk of respiratory illness and vast reduction of oral cancer risk compared to smoking). A clear example, indeed, of political correctness at the expense of public -- and private --health.
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