On Thursday Carl Phillips announced he had left his role with the US-based Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA).
I don't fully understand what has happened but I'd like to express my appreciation for the work Carl has done and I hope this isn't the end of the line because he still has an important contribution to make.
I don't know him well - we generally meet once a year at the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum (GTNF) - but having enjoyed several chats and being a reader of his blog (Anti-THR Lies and Related Topics) I believe he's one of the more objective advocates of tobacco harm reduction (THR). He's certainly one of the least subjective when it comes to smoking.
Carl is one of the few THR commentators who shares (I think) some of my contempt for the tobacco control activists who have leapt on the vaping bandwagon. ('Contempt' may be a bit strong but you get my drift.)
A keen advocate of ecigs and other harm reduction products, he's also a student of irony. He recognises, for example, how bizarre it is that people who spent years disseminating propaganda about smoking (secondhand smoke in particular) are among the first to complain about 'junk science' when it affects e-cigarettes.
If I've understood him correctly, Carl's endgame (like mine) is a world in which adults are allowed to make informed choices about a range of nicotine products.
Carl would like smokers to switch to less harmful products but he believes such choices should be based on genuine science and education, not propaganda and coercion.
If people make the 'wrong' choice it's a matter for them, not government or public health campaigners or vaping enthusiasts who have seen the light and become the worst kind of ex-smoker, puritannical and intolerant of others.
In short, Carl may be a THR campaigner but he's not 'anti tobacco' and he's certainly not 'anti smoker'. Nor is he A Billion Lives style evangelist or public health activist who believes vapers are the "new frontline smoking cessation advisors".
In the increasingly interdependent worlds of tobacco control and tobacco harm reduction this makes him (a) extremely unusual and (b) a potentially disruptive influence.
The reason I am personally grateful to him is that by speaking out (sometimes obliquely – he's more diplomatic than I am!) Carl indirectly encouraged me to comment too because no-one likes to feel they are entirely isolated in a public debate.
So when I read that Carl agrees with me I am quietly comforted because I respect his views (even when we disagree). I appreciate too his courage in speaking out because I know for a fact that some THR advocates are being silenced or intimidated by tobacco control and their craven response sickens me.
The truth is, many of the leading advocates of e-cigarettes are at the forefront of the war on tobacco. For years they misled people about the health risks of passive smoking and to this day they exaggerate the risks of smoking which are considerable but not on the scale their persistent propaganda would have us believe.
Carl recognised much of this and I hope it's not a factor in his departure from CASAA. Likewise his principled refusal to become a mindless cheerleader for e-cigarettes at the expense of consumer choice.
Whatever the reasons I wish him well. We need more not fewer people like Carl Phillips so I hope his voice will continue to be heard.
I'll just add this. I can't think of anyone I'd rather trust to write a genuinely impartial review of the forthcoming documentary A Billion Lives.
That's how highly I value his opinion. No more than 1,000 words, though, Carl. I don't have the attention span for some of your longer posts!
Update: Carl has added a comment – worth reading.