The cigarette is a dirty syringe

Tuesday, 23 March 1999

Geneva, Switzerland

Tobacco

The cigarette is the dirty syringeö declared Dr. Michael Kunze on Tuesday at the 10th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm (IHRC). Michael Kunze is researcher with the Institute for Preventive Social Medicine in Vienna.

Tobacco was one of the major topics of discussion on the second day of the 10th IHRC. Researchers presented the latest substitution methods to reduce the consumption of tobacco available today: the patch, nasal sprays, pills, aerosol inhalants and gums. Cigarettes are just now becoming considered as substances that can be treated with the same philosophy that we use for hard drugs: Harm Reduction,ö Kunze explains. Every smoker has heard you must stop." We now know that if we say to smokers, æwould you like to smoke less?Æ we reach more people, and get more attempts to change behaviours.ö Swiss researcher Jean-Pierre Zellweger pointed out that ôalmost 40% of smokers would agreeö that they would like to smoke less.

Kunze urged that nicotine itself is not the biggest problem, but the vehicle -- the cigarette -- that is used. Just as users of hard drugs ôlook for the heroin, and get HIV,ö cigarettes smokers ôlook for the nicotine, and get lung cancer. If the cigarette was invented today, it would be illegal.ö