Deliberative Democracy: What If Citizens, Not Experts, Decided Nicotine Policy?
Nicotine policy is made by experts—researchers, advocates, regulators—with minimal input from the people it affects. Deliberative democracy—citizens' assemblies, participatory budgeting, community consultations—offers an alternative model of policy-making.
A citizens' assembly on nicotine policy would bring together smokers, vapers, nonsmokers, parents, healthcare providers, and retailers—a representative sample of the population—to learn about the evidence, deliberate about the values, and make recommendations. **This is not how nicotine policy is made. It's made by experts behind closed doors, with minimal public input and no mechanism for affected communities to participate. Deliberative democracy offers an alternative: policy that is not just technically sound but democratically legitimate.**
