Target Audience:
This workshop is intended for lawyers and other individuals involved in proposing, drafting, and adopting tobacco control policy, including advocates, government regulators, and policymakers.

Description:
This workshop will guide participants through some aspects of a decision-making process for drafting policies to regulate e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs). Participants will review and understand common drafting issues and solutions to ensure that these products are adequately covered using WHO FCTC measures.

Background:
The WHO has concluded that e-cigarettes are harmful and that countries that have not banned the sale of e-cigarettes should ensure that their tobacco control measures are “comprehensive enough to regulate all forms of novel and emerging nicotine and tobacco products.” This is consistent with the general obligations of the WHO FCTC, which require Parties to the Convention to implement measures for preventing and reducing nicotine addiction. Regarding HTPs, Parties to the WHO FCTC have recognized that consumption of and exposure to any tobacco product causes death, disease, and disability and have adopted as a guiding principle the need “to decrease the consumption of tobacco products in any form.” In 2018, Parties to the WHO FCTC agreed that they should “regulate, including restrict, or prohibit” novel and emerging tobacco products such as HTPs, including “the devices designed for consuming such products.” The tobacco industry has framed a false narrative around HTPs and e-cigarettes, both by conflating the two products around the term “vaping” and by marketing these products as “reduced risk” or “reduced harm”. All available independent evidence shows that these products are harmful and should be subjected to strict regulation if allowed on the market, and yet the industry is using the confusion over them to confound regulators and policymakers from doing so. This workshop will present a framework for crafting strong, effective, and WHO FCTC-compliant policies on these products. The workshop will take participants through the factors that must be considered when preparing to regulate, including whether and which products have entered the market, current prevalence data, the country’s institutional capacity to regulate and monitor the market, and the definitional considerations to ensure all parts of these products are regulated. The workshop will provide drafting tips and best practices to ensure policies are sufficiently comprehensive to protect populations from both existing and future products. The workshop will share advocacy experiences in regulating emerging products in the Netherlands. A first-hand account of the challenges encountered and successes achieved throughout the process will be provided.

Objectives:
By the end of this workshop, participants will understand: • What factors should be considered when determining how emerging products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products should be regulated; • The differences in defining and regulating heated tobacco products versus e-cigarettes; • What type of policy framework may be the best fit for their country's context; • How to draft legal measures to ensure all emerging products are adequately covered by WHO FCTC measures (regardless of whether the products are banned or regulated); and • Examples of countries implementing strong WHO FCTC measures regulating e-cigarettes and HTPs.

Results:
Participants will take part in a drafting exercise concerning emerging products.