Growing Calls to Integrate Tobacco Harm Reduction Into Drug Services
Growing Calls to Integrate Tobacco Harm Reduction Into Drug Services
Stimson, a public health social scientist and emeritus professor at Imperial College London, was speaking at the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) in Warsaw, Poland, in early June. He emphasized the extremely high prevalence of tobacco smoking, and related harms, among people who use banned drugs.
“Smoking rates amongst people who use drugs or people in drug treatment are two to four times higher than the general population,” Stimson said. Of 100,000 people who used heroin in the United Kingdom, according to research he cited, 63 percent were projected to die before the age of 70, compared with 16 percent of the general population. While 27.6 percent of the projected premature deaths were attributed to factors around banned drug use, 23.6 percent were attributed to smoking. (Filter, USA, 18.06.2026)
https://filtermag.org/integrate-tobacco-harm-reduction-drug-services/