Tobacco Asia News & Views Podcast #53
In this episode, Thomas Schmid speaks with developmental neurobiologist Dr. Charles A. Gardner about the demonization of nicotine. Gardner explains that nicotine has been wrongly conflated with tobacco and smoking, leading to widespread misinformation — including 80% of US physicians falsely believing nicotine causes cancer.
Gardner argues that safer alternatives like vapes, pouches, and snus are vital harm reduction tools, yet prohibitionist policies often ban them while leaving deadly cigarettes legal. Prohibition, he notes, drives products underground and worsens outcomes.
Gardner also highlights nicotine's potential health benefits: helping prevent Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, reducing symptoms of ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, BPD, and schizophrenia, improving focus, and decreasing anxiety.
To shift public perception, he advocates amplifying voices of older ex-smokers who quit cigarettes by using reduced risk products, echoing strategies from cannabis activism. His core message: nicotine is not the enemy — preventable deaths from combustible cigarettes are. Policy should prioritize harm reduction over demonizing a molecule.
Link to Tobacco Asia News and Views Podcast #53
The Tobacco Asia podcast is hosted by Thomas Schmid, contributing editor at Tobacco Asia magazine, and brought to you in conjunction with Business Insights, the new digital platform of Messe Dortmund and their InterTabac/InterSupply events, the world’s leading and largest tobacco exhibitions.