In a forceful closing keynote at the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum (GTNF), Tim Andrews, Director of Consumer Issues at Americans for Tax Reform and the Tholos Foundation, called global bans on vaping and other reduced-risk nicotine products “profoundly immoral,” arguing that prohibition is fueling crime, costing governments billions, and depriving smokers of lifesaving alternatives.
“What we have is the greatest medical breakthrough since penicillin,” Andrews said. “It has the potential to save millions of lives—and yet, these products are being made illegal.”
Andrews described his frustration in engaging with policymakers. “I’ve talked to so many politicians. I present the science, the evidence—and the next day, they go and vote against it,” he said. “But when you start talking about the cost to their state budgets, that’s when they start listening.”
Citing examples from around the world, Andrews said prohibition consistently drives consumers to illicit markets. “In Brazil, e-cigarettes were banned in 2009. Adult smoking rates have gone up. When legal products don’t exist, people either go to the black market or go back to smoking cigarettes,” he explained. “In Germany, 1.4 million people use despite a ban. In Mexico, usage has increased by 400%. Prohibition doesn’t work—it never has.”
He argued that criminal organizations have been the biggest beneficiaries of restrictive nicotine policies. “Cartels have been enriched by prohibition,” he said. “We speak often about the human cost of lives lost to smoking, but now we’re seeing people murdered, and money flowing to sex traffickers and drug cartels. That’s the true cost of bad policy.”
Andrews highlighted new research from a coalition of think tanks showing the economic toll of nicotine bans, including lost tax revenue and enforcement costs. “We launched a campaign with a dozen think tanks around the world,” he said. “Our evidence-based report on the costs of prohibition—on lost revenue and the growth of criminal gangs—has already been downloaded by 50,000 people in Germany alone. When we say prohibition doesn’t work, it’s a fact.”
The data, Andrews said, also show that “about 80% of people say they will go to the black market or return to smoking if safer alternatives are banned—and that’s probably a low estimate.”
Describing Australia’s recent crackdown as “profoundly immoral,” he said, “It breaks my heart that we are ground zero. But once you start taking what politicians care about—the bottom dollar—they start listening.”
Andrews closed with a call to action: “Hundreds of millions of lives can be saved if we get this policy straight. We owe it to future generations. If we can’t convince politicians to do what’s right for human lives, then we must convince them with the economic reality. Either way, prohibition must end.”