Smokers’ Rights Movement Protests Tobacco Control

The Smokers’ Rights Movement (SRM) called for greater public oversight of tobacco policies, with protesters donning body bags and magenta balloons at the World Health Organization’s headquarters in Geneva.

 “We are protesting the oppression of smokers and the lies of tobacco control,” said SRM founder Max Kosenko. “And we are fighting for smokers’ rights to access less lethal products.”

 According to the SRM, scientific research on tobacco harm reduction has been systematically ignored by governments, with deadly results. “Despite decades of spending on tobacco control, smoking remains the world’s leading cause of death, killing 20,000 people a day—three times more than Covid-19—and the number of smokers is increasing,” the organization wrote in a press note.

 “This is not a problem of bad habits; it’s a problem of bad products,” said Kosenko. “Nobody would tolerate another legal product that killed 50 percent of users. But instead of asking ‘Why do we still sell cigarettes?’ we blame smokers and ask, ‘When are they going to quit?’”

 Before the WHO was formed in 1948, governments worked on the question of how to make tobacco consumption safer, according to SRM. But later, focus shifted to the elimination of nicotine use. “No drug has ever been successfully eliminated through prohibition,” the organization wrote. “But harm reduction approaches can mitigate the health risks and save lives.”