By Providence Ayanfeoluwa

Adjunct professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, David Sweanor, has said that as society moved on, narcotic consumers simply ignored what the laws were in various countries.

He said this has led to legalising marijuana completely, countering international treaties that governments had signed.

Sweanor said this in a keynote at the just concluded 11th Global Forum on Nicotine GFN themed: “Economics, Health and Tobacco Harm Reduction” on June 13 to 15, 2024 held at Warsaw, Poland.

He said: “Look at international laws on narcotics. As society has moved on, consumers simply ignored what the laws were in various countries.

“Eventually, in many places, we’ve ended up legalising marijuana – completely counter to these international treaties that governments had signed. And these treaties are more powerful than the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“Good policy is contagious. Consumers would be ahead of the regulators in most markets – and in all of these places, it will be people like law enforcement who argue that they have better things to do than go and find out if people are using a product that’s less hazardous than cigarettes.”

Also, Tobacco and Nicotine Sector Consultant, Jonathan Fell, said: “The public health and tobacco control communities did a fantastic job of demonising the tobacco industry. “Unfortunately, they’ve been so successful that they sometimes forget that, it is not just about somebody selling a product; it is also about people buying a product.

“It is about consumers making choices and about doing things they want to do. Putting the tobacco industry out of business has become the major goal for a lot of people, rather than addressing the issue of individual needs and desires.

“If you don’t give these companies space to transform, then maybe they’ll just retreat into their shell, put up the defensive barriers and focus on what they’ve always done. I think this is one of the dangers of the divestment movements, when it comes to tobacco shares.

“When these companies are public, you can question them, have an influence over their strategy. If these companies are private and owned by some shady billionaire, they can do what they like without challenge.”