A New Approach Towards Tobacco Legislation: The Case for Harm Reduction in CEE and the EU

The new study on ‘A New Approach Towards Tobacco Legislation: The Case for Harm Reduction in CEE and the EU’ examines the fundamental principles of tobacco policy and their applications. With the political support for the policy of reduced risks in the Czech Republic, as well as discussions on cancer prevention ongoing at the EU level, we analyze whether the objective of the European Commission to achieve a tobacco-free generation by 2040, where less than 5% of people use tobacco, is achievable. What we find is that the current trajectory of the international debate on the topic, including abstinence and prohibitionism, is a route that is not realistic. For this reason, we firmly believe that what is needed at the EU level is the more achievable target of smoke-free generation, and that the way to achieve it is through evidence-based policy which incorporates the harm reduction approach.