Good Cop, Bad Cop was a once-popular police interrogation routine. If you have a TV, you’ll know the drill. The Good Cop acts friendly and accommodating and tries to help the suspect; the Bad Cop shouts, lies, screams, insults, belittles and threatens them.

The WHO’s FCTC Conference of the Parties is in permanent Bad Cop mode. They’re prepared to beat a confession out of the suspect if it means establishing their authority.

On the other hand, The Conference of the People, aka Good COP, is about using conviviality and conversation to get to the truth and finally solve the case of 8 million annual smoking deaths.

With COP10 happening in Panama, it’s time to talk about Good COP, Bad COP.

What is the FCTC COP10?

If you’re not already familiar with these events, there are a lot of acronyms to wade through. Here’s a simple primer.

  • The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is a World Health Organization (WHO) accord adopted in 2003. Its aim is to reduce the harm caused by smoking.
  • The Conference of the Parties (COP) governs the FCTC. The “Parties” refer to representatives of the countries who are signed up to the FCTC.
  • These conferences are biennial. COP 10 is the tenth session.

In essence, the conference is a place for governments and legislators to discuss tobacco control and how to update or implement the FCTC on a national level. However, the people who it's meant to protect are shut out of the event, alongside other key stakeholders like journalists, private citizens, consumer advocacy groups, or anyone with a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon link to the tobacco industry.

The consequence of banning the representation of citizens and stakeholders is that the FCTC approach to eliminating smoking lacks diversity of thought. Instead, the event is packed out by Bloomberg-funded groups wielding ideological axes.

For the WHO, cloistering representatives away from the citizens it's meant to protect has many benefits. For starters, they don’t need to acknowledge consumer advocacy groups or consumers. They are free to fiddle away at the margins without input from the people they are meant to protect or represent. Additionally, they don’t have to listen to the “wrong” type of science or tobacco control advice.

Even Mobutu Sese Seko's 1970 political campaign manager would find the FCTC a little undemocratic for his tastes. That year, Mobutu famously won in excess of 100% of the votes. The FCTC has engineered a way to bypass even that mechanism.

This kind of setup is a technocrat's dream. After all, pesky human nature always seems to find a way to meddle with their grand plans about how society should be organised.

COP10 at Panama

FCTC COP10 has rolled into Panama for its tenth session. Originally scheduled for November, according to an FCTC press release, it was postponed at short notice “due to the current security situation in Panama.” However, as ever with Tobacco Control, you have to check the fine print.

As it turns out, the consortium that organised the meeting finessed the Panamanian government for at least $5 million to host the event. In the lead-up to November's original COP10, citizens of Panama were already protesting wasteful government spending. That $5 million came under serious scrutiny.

When the slush fund for the FCTC was cut off, they postponed the event until February in the hope that the controversy had died down. While those particular protests have quietened, there is still plenty of corruption and opacity to go around.

Good COP at Panama

In light of the undemocratic nature of COP10, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has organised a counter-event in Panama called the Conference of the People (Good COP). The multi-day event brings together more than 20 tobacco harm reduction experts from 11 different countries.

Per the TPA website:

The Conference of the People (Good COP) will be a launch vehicle for a broader coalition of taxpayer, free market, and harm reduction organisations to counter the message from the FCTC Secretariat and specifically address issues brought forth at COP. Currently, there is no cohesive, organised message to balance the misinformation stemming from the WHO and institutions under the auspices of the FCTC.

This conference will serve as a launch vehicle for a broader coalition of taxpayer, free market, and harm reduction organisations to counter the message from the FCTC Secretariat and specifically address issues brought forth at COP.

Good COP runs from February 5th to the 9th and features talks from esteemed members of the harm reduction community, expert scientists, and, heaven forbid, groups advocating on behalf of filthy consumers!

Here is a list of some of the speakers at Good COP. You’ll notice some familiar names on there, including the brilliant Martin Cullip, Lindsey Stroud, Konstantinos Farsalinos, and Christopher Snowden, to name just a few.

The talks are being live-streamed via YouTube, so you don’t have to feel shut out from the event because you couldn’t attend. The live streams are also available on-demand so that you can watch them in your own time.

Here is the program for Good COP, where you can find a full list of the events and speakers. Some of the highlights include:

State Of Consumer Access with Liza Katasiashvili (Georgia), Connor Molloy (New Zealand), Mark Oates (UK), and Roberto Sussman (Mexico), featuring a discussion about “consumer access to tobacco harm reduction products around the world”.

The Problems And Science Of Smoking, What Is The Science Of Tobacco Harm Reduction? with Carmen Escrig (Spain), Konstantinos Farsalinos (Greece), Riccardo Polosa (Italy), and Dr Randall Rodríguez Obando (Costa Rica), a discussion on the science behind smoking related-health issues and the importance of tobacco harm reduction.

LMIC Countries And Tobacco with Dr. Rohan Andrede De Sequeira (India), Tomas O'gorman (Mexico), Kurt Yeo (South Africa), and Jeffrey Zamora (Costa Rica), a discourse on “how  tobacco control groups are failing low and middle-income countries from accessing tobacco harm reduction”

The Exclusion Of Science And Consumers At Cop with Connor Molloy (New Zealand), Tomas O’gorman (Mexico), Filip Tokic (Croatia), and Kurt Yeo (South Africa), a talk concerning why tobacco harm reduction consumers and scientists are not allowed to participate in copying.

What Policies Should Countries Take To Reduce Smoking Rates? with Tim Andrews (USA), Will Godfrey (USA), Mark Oates (UK), and Jeff Smith (USA), a talk that breaks down the misinformation around tobacco harm reduction and points a way toward a more reasonable future for tobacco control.

Of course, the talks highlighted above are just a taste of what to expect from the event. Check out the program for yourself to find the topics that resonate with you.

Final thoughts

COP10 is a disgraceful event mired in corruption and a serious lack of transparency. It is designed so that it can’t be fixed or influenced by genuine stakeholders. However, honesty, good information, effective policies, and alternative products will prevail in the battle to reduce smoking-related illness.

Good COP is a big part of that battle because it is inclusive and designed to get the right information to consumers and, if they’re prepared to listen, governments, regulators, and health bodies.