17 JUNE 2021
GFN
GFN•TV Commentary Team
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Panelist
Sarah Coney

Panelist
Martin Cullip

Martin Cullip
- Panelist
- United Kingdom
Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Host
Harry Shapiro

Harry Shapiro
- Host
- Australia
Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.
Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.
Michael Russell Keynote #1 - Science and Politics: an often fractious relationship
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Respondent
Chris Snowdon

Host
Paddy Costall

Speaker
Fiona Patten

Fiona Patten
- Speaker
- Australia
Fiona Patten is a Member for Northern Metropolitan Region in the Victorian Parliament’s Legislative Council. Leader of the Reason Party, Fiona was first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. Since being elected in 2014, Fiona has garnered respect from all sides of the political divide and has worked tirelessly to deliver legislative reforms that many thought impossible. Fiona is now working towards improving Victoria even further, and is pushing to legalise and regulate cannabis for adult use, continuing to implement electoral reform, religious accountability and greater separation of church and state, legalise sex work, and spent convictions legislation.
Panel Discussion - Science: orthodoxy, challenges and dissent
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Panelist
Konstantinos Farsalinos

Konstantinos Farsalinos
- Panelist
- Greece
Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH is a physician and senior researcher at the University of Patras and the School of Public Health-University of West Attica in Greece. His field of expertise is Public Health. He has been conducting laboratory, clinical and epidemiological research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes as principal investigator since 2011. He authored the first systematic review on e-cigarette safety/risk profile, published in 2014. Additionally, he has performed research and published studies on heated tobacco products. His findings have been presented in major international scientific congresses and his studies were used in preparing the regulatory framework on e-cigarettes by the European Union. As of mid-2020, he has published more than 90 studies and articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals about smoking, tobacco harm reduction and alternative-to-smoking nicotine products. He was the handling editor and author of a book titled "Analytical assessment of e-cigarettes", published by Elsevier in 2017. In November 2020, he was declared a Highly Cited Researcher 2019 by the Web of Science, a list of researchers (6200 scientists out of 9 million examined) with the highest impact in global science in 21 scientific fields in the past decade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has published 6 peer-reviewed studies and several pre-prints about the COVID-19, including the association between smoking, nicotine and COVID-19.

Panelist
Michelle Minton

Michelle Minton
- Panelist
- United States of America
Michelle Minton is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Minton specializes in consumer policy, covering regulatory issues that include gambling, tobacco harm reduction, cannabis legalization, alcohol, and nutrition.
Minton has authored numerous studies, including topics like the effectiveness and unintended consequences of sin taxes and history of gambling regulation. Her analyses have been published and cited by nationally respected news outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today as well as peer-reviewed journals. She regularly appears in news media to discuss the unintended effects of laws and rules designed to save adults from their own choices which, not only conflicts with the principle of individual liberty, but often the goals of public health.
Ms. Minton holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science from the University of new England.
When not working, Minton engages in hands-on “research” in her areas of expertise by spending many hours playing poker, enjoying salty foods, and drinking delicious craft beers.

Panelist
Brad Rodu

Brad Rodu
- Panelist
- United States of America
Dr Brad Rodu is a professor of medicine and holds an endowed chair in tobacco harm reduction research at the University of Louisville, Kentucky USA. Since 1994 Rodu has authored 70 medical publications about tobacco, and he blogs at Rodu Tobacco Truth (http://rodutobaccotruth.blogspot.com/).

Panelist
Roberto Sussman

Roberto Sussman
- Panelist
- Mexico
Dr Roberto A Sussman is a full time senior researcher and lecturer in physics at the National University of Mexico. He specializes in Theoretical Cosmology but has undertaken research and frequent peer reviewing for journals in other areas of Astrophysics. He is also the founder and Director of Pro-Vapeo Mexico, an association representing Mexican consumers of noncombustible nicotine products and is a member of INNCO. He is actively advocating for an appropriate regulation of Tobacco Harm Reduction products in Mexico. He directs and supervises the effort to spread scientific information on these products, as well as advising consumers on how to counter the misinformation and prejudice about them that is rampant throughout Latin America.

Host
Robyn Gougelet

Host
Clive Bates

Clive Bates
- Host
- United Kingdom
Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.
GFN•TV Commentary Team
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Panelist
Sarah Coney

Panelist
Martin Cullip

Martin Cullip
- Panelist
- United Kingdom
Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Host
Harry Shapiro

Harry Shapiro
- Host
- Australia
Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.
Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.
GFN Fives
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Panel Discussion - Who uses nicotine and why?
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Panelist
Charles Gardner

Panelist
Bengt Wiberg

Panelist
Mirosław Dworniczak

Mirosław Dworniczak
- Panelist
- Poland
Miroslaw Dworniczak, PhD - chemist, freelance science journalist, former scientist and lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland). Author (under the name "Stary Chemik" - "Old Chemist") of the first blog in Poland dealing with e-cigarettes and e-liquid chemistry and safety (http://starychemik.wordpress.com - in Polish) and the webpage for complete beginners (http://epapieros.edu.pl) including a manual for beginners in English (http://epapieros.edu.pl/manual-english/).

Panelist
Sairah Salim-Sartoni

Host
Suely Castro

Host
Christopher Russell
GFN Fives
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Themes emerging from the 'GFN Fives'
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Panelist
David Cross

Panelist
Aishat Alaran

Panelist
Eliana Golberstein Rubashyn

Panelist
Will Godfrey

Will Godfrey
- Panelist
- United States of America
Will Godfrey is the founding editor-in-chief of Filter (https://filtermag.org), an online magazine that launched in 2018 to cover drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. He's also the executive director of The Influence Foundation, the nonprofit behind Filter. He previously founded The Influence, an award-winning drug policy news site, and ran Substance.com and the addiction-focused site The Fix. Before that, he co-founded an award-winning print publication for incarcerated people in London. He has consulted for numerous organisations in the drug policy and harm reduction space. He lives in New York.

Host
David Mackintosh
GFN Fives
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Michael Russell Keynote #2 - Investment in Nicotine Innovation: risks and rewards for public health
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Respondent
David Sweanor

Host
Ruth Goldsmith

Speaker
Jonathan Fell

Jonathan Fell
- Speaker
- United Kingdom
Jonathan Fell is a founder of Ash Park, managing the Ash Park Global Consumer Franchise funds, focused on long-term, high-quality investments in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, including the tobacco sector. Prior to 2013, he was team head of the consumer equity research group at Deutsche Bank in London, where he covered the tobacco and beverages sectors, following earlier spells at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Jon is also a director of Article 36, a UK-based not-for-profit organisation working to promote public scrutiny over the development and use of weapons.
GFN•TV Commentary Team
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Panelist
Sarah Coney

Panelist
Martin Cullip

Martin Cullip
- Panelist
- United Kingdom
Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Host
Harry Shapiro

Harry Shapiro
- Host
- Australia
Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.
Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.
18 JUNE 2021
GFN - Part 2
Commentary Team
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Panelist
Sarah Coney

Panelist
Martin Cullip

Martin Cullip
- Panelist
- United Kingdom
Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Host
Harry Shapiro

Harry Shapiro
- Host
- Australia
Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.
Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.
Michael Russell Keynote #3 - Why has the WHO FCTC failed to reduce adult smoking and its health impact?
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Respondent
Cliff Douglas

Host
Gerry Stimson

Gerry Stimson
- Host
- United Kingdom
Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs harm reduction in the 1990s, helping to develop and evaluate harm reduction in the UK as a response to HIV/AIDS. Gerry has advised the UK Government, WHO, UNAIDS, UNODC, the World Bank and numerous governments around the world on issues relating to drugs, HIV infection and AIDS, and alcohol. He has also published over 220 scientific publications and several books.
Currently, Gerry is Director of Research and Policy at Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction and Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship programmes. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014.

Speaker
Derek Yach

Derek Yach
- Speaker
- South Africa
Derek Yach MBChB MPH, is a global health expert focused on addressing major chronic diseases, mental health and their underlying risks. He has led major initiatives to address tobacco use, healthy diets, and mental health at the World Health Organization, Yale, PepsiCo, the Vitality Group, and most recently as President and founder of the Foundation for a Smoke Free World. Derek has published over 250 peer reviewed publications. He has served on several advisory boards including those led by the World Economic Forum, Wellcome Trust, NIH's Fogarty Center, and Cornerstone Capital. He currently is a member of APCO's International Advisory Board. He lives in Connecticut, USA and swims most days.
GFN Fives
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Panel Discussion - Obstacles to Tobacco Harm Reduction in LMICs
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Panelist
Joseph Magero

Joseph Magero
- Panelist
- Kenya
Joseph Magero is an avid tobacco harm reduction advocate. He has spent a decade working in tobacco control as the former director of the Africa Tobacco-Free Initiative, but after extensive research, consultation, and direct engagement with ex-smokers, scientists and tobacco harm reduction consumer advocates, he became convinced that giving smokers the option of switching to significantly safer (and enjoyable) nicotine products could provide a vital addition in reducing smoking related diseases. He is currently the chairman of Campaign For Safer Alternatives, a regional organisation that advocates for the adoption of tobacco harm reduction policies in Africa. His commitment to a smoke-free future remains undiminished.

Panelist
Tomas O'Gorman

Tomas O'Gorman
- Panelist
- Mexico
Tomás is a Mexican lawyer and teaches Corporation Law and Successions Law at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. An ex-smoker and vaper since 2016, he is co-founder of "Pro-Vapeo Mexico", a Mexican consumer association (registered in 2017), that advocates for tobacco harm reduction and non-combustible alternatives. He is a member of INNCO’s Board.

Panelist
Nataliia Toropova

Panelist
Sree Sucharitha

Sree Sucharitha
- Panelist
- India
Dr. Sree T.Sucharitha, M.D currently Professor in Department of Community Medicine and Research Co-ordinator at Tagore Medical College and Hospital Chennai, India holds Fellowship in HIV Medicine from I-Tech India which is a joint program with collaboration with Tamil Nadu government. She is also Fellow of Asian Human Rights and Drug Policy. Won Best paper awards for presentations at Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR University (2018), IJRULA- Best Research Scientist-Environment Science (2018), Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University (2019). She is the Founding-Director of AHRER-Association for Harm Reduction Education and Research, a first-ever registered medical professionals body in India for increasing the public awareness of harms resulting due to various human behaviours associated with tobacco consumption, narcotics, alcohol, and obesity.

Host
Delon Human

Host
Sud Patwardhan
GFN•TV Commentary Team
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Panelist
Sarah Coney

Panelist
Martin Cullip

Martin Cullip
- Panelist
- United Kingdom
Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Host
Harry Shapiro

Harry Shapiro
- Host
- Australia
Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.
Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.
GFN Fives
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Panel Discussion: Safer Nicotine Product Regulation: supporting or undermining the end of smoking?
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Panelist
Jeannie Cameron

Panelist
Przemysław Bobiński

Panelist
Robyn Gougelet

Panelist
Gregory Conley

Host
Rebecca Taylor

Host
Clive Bates

Clive Bates
- Host
- United Kingdom
Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.
GFN Fives
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Consumer Voices Panel
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Panelist
Peter Stigaard

Panelist
Roberto Susman

Panelist
Julie Woessner

Panelist
Jagannath Sarangapani

Jagannath Sarangapani
- Panelist
- India
Jagannath Sarangapani is an active tobacco harm reduction advocate from India and a former member of the board of Association of Vapers India (AVI). Vaping helped him quit a 20-year 40 cigarette a day habit about seven years ago and he has been smoke-free since. He passionately believes smokers need to retain the right to safer alternatives which help transition from smoking, and those who have switched should be allowed to remain smoke-free.
An industrialist for 30 years, Jagannath has managed his family concern which pioneered cellular plastics and insulated panels in India. He holds a Masters’ degree in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and is also an alumnus of Columbia Business School.

Host
Suely Castro

Host
Mark Oates

Mark Oates
- Host
- United Kingdom
Mark Oates is the Director of We Vape and the Snus Users Association, which are both consumer groups standing up for the right of individuals to use safer nicotine products. He advocates for evidence-based harm reduction in a range of areas from tobacco to drug policy, a subject he has written on for the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Adam Smith Institute, where he is a Fellow. He also provided consumer evidence in the 2018 ECJ case to overturn the ban of snus across the European Union and worked on the successful 2018 campaign to legalise medical cannabis in the UK.
Closing Session with the GFN•TV Commentary Team
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Panelist
Martin Cullip

Martin Cullip
- Panelist
- United Kingdom
Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Host
Harry Shapiro

Harry Shapiro
- Host
- Australia
Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.
Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.