Later today, the Washington State Liquor Control Board will
release draft rules for a commercial marijuana marketplace in our state. As we consider what such a for-profit system
should look like, it behooves us to reflect on what has happened with other
legal consumables, including food, soda, and alcohol, and their affect on
public health.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan
recently stated that noncommunicable diseases have overtaken infectious
diseases as the leading cause of death worldwide. She pointed to Big Business as one of the
most serious challenges to overcoming these problems: “It is not just Big
Tobacco anymore. Public health must also contend with Big Food, Big Soda, and
Big Alcohol. All of these industries fear regulation, and protect themselves by
using the same tactics.” In particular,
she declared Big Alcohol one of the most serious challenges to public health in
an address to the 2013 Global Conference on Health Promotion. Chan noted
corporate use of front groups, lobbyists, promises of self-regulation,
lawsuits, and industry-funded research that “confuses the evidence and keeps
the public in doubt," along with the use of gifts, grants, and
contributions that falsely cast industry as respectable corporate citizens.
Read more about how Big Alcohol can't police itself, and Big Alcohol's deceptive use of "drink responsibly" themes.
No comments:
Post a Comment