Activists Hold Harm Reduction Rally Ahead of COP9

Delegates from some of the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations’ (INNCO) 37 member organizations in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia will gather in London on Nov. 8 to applaud the U.K. government’s evidence-based support for tobacco harm reduction and to highlight the importance of the ninth Conference of Parties of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which begins that day.

“We are ex-smokers who use safer nicotine to save our own lives,” said Charles Gardner, INNCO’s executive director, in a statement. “Many of us around the world face stigma for using nicotine, a drug that is no more harmful to health than caffeine. A global ‘misinfodemic’ is now spreading worldwide, and the only cure is to embrace evidence and evidence-based policies such as those in the United Kingdom.”