Rona Ambrose has joined the board of JUUL. Michael Harris writes:
What message does it send when a former federal health minister joins the board of an e-cigarette company, the way Rona Ambrose did?
The practise of public officeholders who make big salaries in government moving on to even bigger salaries as lobbyists, consultants, or corporate board members, based largely on their insider knowledge is growing.
Still, members of the public health community were startled by Ambrose’s decision.
E-cigarettes are not a solution to the problem of youth smoking:
A big problem it is. According to the CDC, in 2019 about 30 per cent of U.S. high school students used tobacco products. For every one that smoked cigarettes, about five used e-cigarettes. This after cigarette smoking had declined steeply. In the early 1960s, 42 per cent of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes. Today, it’s 14 per cent. But vaping, concluded the American Medical Association, is creating “a new generation of nicotine addicts.”
In Canada, as in the U.S., teen vaping is on the rise. Twenty per cent of high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the previous month according to the 2018-2019 Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey. This was double the rate reported in the 2016-2017 report.
And Ambrose is on the record about e-cigarettes:
“These new technologies will not succeed in eradicating cigarettes unless businesses and regulators work together to successfully fight the problem of underage use.”
Why the change in Ambrose's perspective? I suggest that -- as is the case so often these days -- we follow the money.
Image: The Tyee
12 comments:
Wow, a former health minister joining the board of a tobacco company! Juul's biggest shareholder is Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris). The tobacco companies realized that they could continue addicting young people to their lethal products by repackaging smoking as vaping. Add a bunch of cool flavours like mango and those big clouds of vape would be sure to get a new generation hooked on their lethal products. Politics and corporate boards sure do attract sociopaths.
Cap
These days, Cap, conscience seems to be a fable from a mythical past.
Very disappointed in Rona Ambrose, but I guess, not at all surprised, Owen. To-day, those with political ambitions are arriving at the starting gate earlier and earlier, thus most have no real experience in what "serving our people" means at all. They tend to be looking for a full time, well-paying gig with a not-so-hard-earned pension to boot.
When one closely examines their collective contribution to both Canada, the country, or its people, the citizens, they fail miserably when I compare them to the likes of Tommy Douglas, Lester Pearson, or Robert Stanfield, just to name three obvious ones.
While Rona and her ilk were ragging on Trudeau for his free trip to the Aga Khan's island, she was yachting around with her host Murray Edwards. The Edwards who was the major shareholder of the Mount Polley mine, the Red Chris mine, along with other organizations that were at work privatizing profits at public expense. Edwards also coordinated over a million dollar fund event in Alberta to aid that unsavory Christie Clark. RG
Harris' previous column explored why Trudeau escapes scandal after scandal. His conclusion is that there's a general and broad lapse of ethics in modern society. We've become indifferent to ethical failure. Perhaps Rona is just another manifestation of this. It may also explain the rebound of Social Darwinism.
BTW, Scientific American has an article on the resurgence of LSD in America. It's being touted as a return to "chemical escapism" in the era of pandemics and existential decline. BTW, you know a reliable source for some Soma?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/americans-increase-lsd-use-and-a-bleak-outlook-for-the-world-may-be-to-blame1/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=week-in-science&utm_content=link&utm_term=2020-07-17_featured-this-week&spMailingID=67665114&spUserID=MjIxNzk4OTQ4NTYS1&spJobID=1922278612&spReportId=MTkyMjI3ODYxMgS2
Douglas, Pearson, and Stanfield were of a different generation and time, Lulymay. And they make our present crop of "public servants" look puny.
When you follow the money, RG, it always seems that some unsavoury people always belly up to the bar.
More and more, Mound, I seem to hear, "Don't say damn. Take a gram."
Although Ambrose may not be seriously dishonest, it seems she's skilled at compartmentalizing her values, a skill most politicians need to survive. It's a shame that her "convictions" about the dangers of nicotine weren't deeper. She's a superb actor,though, like many politicians. That's the best defense I'm able to scratch up for her...
CED
I read somewhere, CED, that Franklin Roosevelt once told Orson Welles he and Welles were two of the best actors in America. Somehow, I can't see Ambrose as a competitor to either of them. But I will give her credit for trying.
.. just the other day on Twitter, I saw someone 'trying to understand Stephen Lecce' and the blundering in Ontario Education. Hopefully I was of some use.. explaining that voyaging down the backtrail of such political performers, parasites, preeners & Public Serpents is always 'telling'. Rona Ambrose is just another example.. and your commenters caught a few glaring examples.
Meanwhile one can do the same re Jane Philpott.. and find the stunning clean backtrail of an exemplar ! Meanwhile, Ms Chrystia Freeland is being presented as an angel on earth blah blah, Ms Remple Garner is losing her shite in Oklahoma dontcha know.. and where is Joan of Arc Laureen ? Off defending the family farm from small rodents or whitetail deer with an AR 15 ?
Ms Christy Clark surely is doing volunteer work with the Wetsuweten while biding her time in Kelowna or Tahiti.. Where art Thou Duffy ? John Baird cavorting in London Town ? Whither the Weenie wagger Tony Clement.. or has he found Jesus ? In my view the next Prime Minister in Canada may be 'Nate' - Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.. a faultless pathway and a 'doer'.. I am waiting for Michael Chong to bail on the Scheer, MacKay, O'Toole disaster.. and holy Sloan (deary me !!)
I truly wonder what possesed Saint Justin & Butts Inc re the WE.. debacle.. here they were ridin high into the sunset in the saddle of the CERB.. and they faceplanted.. ! 9.9 from the Russian Judge on Technical Grin n Bear It !! Wear It. Ms Jody Wilson-Reybould & Ms Philpott were not asked to be guest judges.. which is a sad state of affairs
What continues to mystify me, sal, is how completely unnecessary all of this was.
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