Weed activists and anti-tobacco fanatics. Committed addiction researchers and prohibitionists. All gathered in Panama City to attend, monitor and comment on the tenth meeting of the WHO Tobacco Convention, COP10. Vejpkollen took the pulse of two movements fighting for, and against, alternatives to cigarettes.
After a few chaotic hours and delays, the WHO opened the tenth meeting of the Tobacco Convention. From the very first speeches, the message was clear: according to the WHO Secretariat for Tobacco Control, the availability of new forms of nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches is a problem that needs to be addressed. At the same time, those who think otherwise did not get a word in edgewise. At least inside the meeting.
"Stop the tobacco companies - ban e-cigarettes"
The small group of activists gathered outside the Panama Convention Center are certainly vocal, but they are reluctant to talk to anyone, it turns out. The COP10 meeting is a closed-door affair, with only selected journalists allowed access to delegates and the activist groups attending as audience members. The group Salud Justa from Mexico is one of the groups that will be in the audience during the week-long meeting. With angry placards, bright white T-shirts and a small staff of photographers and flyers with vejps crossed out, they posed on a small patch of grass a few meters from the conference center.
"We only talk to the media inside the premises" says one of the activists when Vejpkollen asks what they are doing.
At the same time, one of the group shoves a camera in the face of a reporter from Belgium standing next to him. He backs away.
"They seem to be more interested in filming people without asking first, than saying what they actually stand for," says the journalist afterwards, slightly annoyed.
Avoiding publicity
The COP10 meeting in Panama is not getting much attention in the mainstream media. According to critics, this is probably a tactic by the WHO Secretariat to avoid 'bad' publicity. Nicotine is a field where many interests compete for attention. Tobacco companies, organized consumer groups, addiction researchers and other stakeholders naturally have different views than anti-tobacco activists, pharmaceutical companies, ministry officials and WHO representatives. Nonetheless, there is a heated debate on harm reduction within the scientific community, focusing on everything from health risks to the relative risks of nicotine use.
The other perspective on nicotine
While activist groups organized private seminars and distributed anti-vejp related materials, including disposable e-cigarettes with the text "cancer flavour", to delegates during COP10, US Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) organized its own conference with an alternative focus on the tobacco convention. The TPA wanted to put the emphasis on harm reduction for smokers and therefore brought a consumer perspective to the issue of tobacco control. And unlike the WHO conference, the media was welcomed with open arms.
"The WHO is taxpayer-funded. And if something is paid for by taxpayers' money, the meeting should be open to the public. COP10, on the other hand, is taking place without the participation of the public or representatives of those who actually pay for it and are very much affected by what happens inside. We find that completely unacceptable. That's why we wanted to organize a conference that highlights the voice of the people." says David Williams, CEO of TPA to Vejpkollen when we meet between seminars at the small hotel in downtown Panama City, a few kilometers from the gigantic Panama Conference Center where WHO is housed.
"A debate that the WHO does not want"
The TPA aptly named its conference 'Good COP - Conference of the People' and it was attended by doctors, vejpers, snus users, researchers and commentators who over the years have become symbols of an alternative solution to the tobacco issue. Harm reduction, whether it is individuals quitting smoking with the help of e-cigarettes or tobacco companies shifting their profits from cigarettes to nicotine pouches, is now a global phenomenon that seriously challenges the traditional model of reducing the harm of smoking in the world.
"A debate on harm reduction or other issues related to new nicotine products, a topic that is otherwise the focus of the negotiations at COP10, is the last thing you want to have inside the meeting" says Martin Cullip, who moderated several Good COP seminars.
"Any consumer or harm reduction organization that applied for accreditation to COP10 has been given a blank "no" by the WHO. And those that for some reason slipped through were thrown out during the opening session" says Martin Cullip to Vejpkollen.
Surrounded by guards
One of those shown the door at COP10 was vejparen, infuencer and harm reduction activist Julio Ruades. His Youtube channel has over half a million followers and covers a large part of the Spanish speaking world. Julio Ruades took his camera and started streaming live from the reception hall, before COPO10 was officially opened.
"They let me stay for a while and I interviewed some delegates from Brazil and representatives from other media. Then everything happened very quickly, I was surrounded by guards and then I just had to kindly go out again", Julio Ruades told Vejpkollen.
Resistance from authorities
Julio Ruades was neither surprised nor disappointed by the reception. He has been there before, he says. The last time was a conference in Spain on harm reduction and smoking. At the time, health authorities tried to stop the event, which resulted in the loss of the venue.
"There are powerful interests that are doing everything they can to prevent those of us who use e-cigarettes from having a voice. These products have saved our lives and millions of people need access to their vapes. My message is to never give up and do everything you can to be seen and heard" says Julio Ruades to Vejpkollen.
COP10 in Panama City
COP10 took place in Panama City on February 5-10. Vejpkollen was there and reports on the events surrounding the meeting. The Taxpayer Protection Alliance conference "GoodCOP/BadCOP took place during the same period and can be followed via various social media.
