Welcome to Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Ashken Kazarian, Tech Freedom's Legal Fellow and your host.

On today's show, we're going to talk about harm reduction policy. So it is 2018, and a lot of people are working hard to keep their New Year's resolution to give up smoking.

A resolution that also met headlines was Philip Morris International's resolution of a company

behind the big name cigarettes like Marlborough Parliament.

They committed to a dramatic decision to eventually stop selling cigarettes altogether in order

to achieve a smoke-free future.

There has been a lot written about harm reduction as a part of achieve a smoke-free future. There has been a lot written about harm

reduction as a part of achieving that smoke-free future. To explain to us all the complex parts

of this puzzle, we're joined by Carrie Waite, Director of Harm Reduction Policy and Senior

Fellow at R Street Institute. Carrie holds a PhD in pharmacology and a master's in public health and has been working on these issues for years.

Carrie, thank you for joining the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

So Carrie, what are harm reduction principles in general?

What do they mean?

So harm reduction in general aims to reduce the negative consequences that are associated with risks and risk behaviors.

It doesn't necessarily have to be associated with drug use or more controversial risks that we take every day,

but it can extend to simple things like driving a car and using a seatbelt is a great example of this.

So me putting on my seatbelt is harm reduction.

Well, I mean, you drive a car, you have a certain risk of

being in a car accident, and in car accidents you have a huge risk of being injured. So it's doing a simple

thing like putting on a seatbelt won't necessarily decrease the risk of the accident, but it will

decrease the risk of your injuries. So what would be hard production when it

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