Thread by @vaper_the

People in #TobaccoControl often chant a mantra to the effect "#ThinkOfTheChildren!"

Of course, children should be considered, & protected, but why not focus on the harm facing adult smokers? If they can #QuitSmoking by 40 years old (some say 35), they can avoid any serious health implications.

Well, I've thought (probably too) much on this, and suspect these folks all hold the same beliefs:

1) They've given up* on getting adult smokers to quit. Campaigns aimed at adults are showing minimal, and falling, ROI.

* But they DESPERATELY don't want to admit that. "Grants ahoy!"

2) They believe the major driver of taking up #smoking are things like:
a) Growing up in a house where parents smoke and cigarettes are accessible.
b) A world where TV & movies showing smoking, can be any less than R18 rated. Or should that be R21? (Looking at /you/, America!)

3) Thus the push for a '#SmokeFree generation'. "If only we can get an entire generation to not take up smoking, we'll win the war against #BigTobacco! Maybe not /this/ generation, but by the next there'll be no new smokers and the old smokers will have become extinct."

4) IF they understand that #nicotine can be useful to ameliorate the effects of #MentalHealth issues, they still feel those issues are better addressed by:

a) Improving the lives of young people. "There's no #PTSD without trauma!"
b) Shunting the remainder into the arms of their best buds in #BigPharma. "Hey pharma - get your act together. Sending sick people your way!"

Of course, the 'monkey see, monkey do' apect of 2(b) is the main reason they're not embracing #vaping or #HnB / #HTP. While the resistance to #snus & #nicotine pouches comes from faith in 4(b).

Before you assure me it's not so, look back on some of your interactions with #ANTZ & ask yourself "how well would this outlook explain how they do, or /don't/, interact with #THR advocates?".

/fin

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