Smoke signals
Friday, August 25, 2017 at 9:20 
The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers & Tobacco Blenders was founded in 1619.
Dissolved twice and re-formed in 1954, the Company is associated with "all aspects of the UK tobacco trade, including leaf growers, merchants and blenders; tobacco and paper manufacturers; pipe makers; snuff blenders; cigar importers and retail tobacconists."
To highlight its work and activities it publishes a quarterly newsletter, Smoke Signals, and I'm pleased to say the latest issue features an article about Forest.
Here's a taste:
Simon believes Forest may be unique in the world, and puts its staying power down to being professionally run. “Other smokers’ groups have come and gone,” he says. “A similar group in the USA found it hard to achieve a significant presence in the media
"Smokepeace, a loose association of smokers’ rights groups in Europe, most of them run by volunteers, ultimately collapsed. Our professional staff enable us to sustain fast responses, professional media visibility, and our 38-year history gives us credibility.”
And Forest is now spreading its wings further. It has launched a chapter in Brussels, Forest EU, to give smokers a voice in the European Union and to put consumers at the heart of the EU legislative debate.
Guillaume Périgois, Director of Forest EU, says it will arm consumers with information and resources for engaging with politicians and regulators. Like Forest in the UK, the EU chapter acknowledges the health risks, but says:
“If adults choose to smoke that’s a matter for them and no-one else. It is not a public health issue; it’s a private health issue. We need a liberal and pragmatic approach to tobacco that puts empathy above dogma and takes account of the views of ordinary citizens.”
You can read the full article here.
Reader Comments (2)
Forest is important as a platform for smokers rights and choice. It is important tat it is establishing a beachhead at the EU. It would be nice to see that expand to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand next as smokers are really under assault in those countries. Forest is an important voice but it must get ladder and be joined by additional voices to be heard above the shouts of the antismokers.
I suspect lack of fundng more than anything led to the collapse of other groups. People cannot eat air nor live on park benches. If all their time is taken up in fighting for the rights of marginalised people, which is a full time job and some more, they need to make it their living as those in the anti smoker industry did and with respect as those in forest do. Your professionalism does give forest an edge though, that is true.
Would debs or hazel or any Ashites work for nothing? No they would not and neither would other public health and anti smoker workers. Sadly only one side of this campaign is criticised for getting funding and that isn't those tax leeches who also enjoy a dishonest living from big pharma which is in direct competition with the tobacco industry for smoker custom.