Lindsey Stroud started her journey as a political staffer and found her passion for tobacco harm reduction when she joined the Heartland Institute in 2016, diving into the world of vaping advocacy. Now with the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, she created the annual 50 State Analysis, offering an in-depth look at tobacco and vaping trends across the country.
Tell us about yourself – who are you and how did you end up working on safer nicotine products?
So I started off as a political staffer for a couple of state lawmakers, one in Virginia and a state senator in Minnesota. And that was really fun. Then 2016 I went over to the Heartland Institute and I was still a smoker during my interview process, so they said “oh, you can work on vaping”. So I started doing the research on vaping and found a consumer driven revolution. And it was fascinating to see shop owners and small businesses who were just trying to help people quit smoking being forced to deal with the wrath of the American government. So I kind of just fell in love with it.
So did you give up smoking?
I did but it was a gradual process. I tapered down for a while until I was having, like, one cigarette a day. Then I had a crazy work schedule with the FDA and went through a breakup with my ex, so tapered back up again. Turns out dealing with FDA is stressful enough to make you pick up smoking! But I finally quit completely a couple of years ago. I can’t even finish a cigarette any more.
OK so you started at Heartland then moved onto the Taxpayers Protection Alliance where you are now. What are you working on?
Well the thing I’m most proud of is the 50 State Analysis. I do it annually and it provides up-to-date data on adults who use cigarettes and vaping products in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C based on government datasets. The 2024 edition also includes data on youth use, impacts of e-cigarettes, and analyses of the amount of revenue received through tobacco taxes and funds from tobacco settlement payments.
It was kind of born out of necessity: I was going to a lot of State level hearings at the time and I didn't want to sit there and regurgitate stuff when I was going. I wanted to go present my own data.
I also really wanted to really see if youth vaping leads to smoking. I figured that if it did, you would see a big increase in smoking numbers among 18 to 24 year olds, but the opposite has happened. One of my favorite graphs is when I break it all down by age group and it's just amazing to watch that 18 to 24 year old line, just because at the beginning of 1995, they're the highest. They're the ones who were smoking the most out of all the age brackets. And then from 2014 that thing just drops. I mean, it's kind of amazing.
I'm really proud of that project. And right now I’m just waiting for the CDC to give me the 2023 numbers because I think we will actually see a much larger percentage of adults, you know, vaping compared to kids.
You’ve worked for two organisations – Heartland and Taxpayers Protection Alliance – that would be seen as coming from the libertarian right. Why has the vaping debate turned into a right vs left culture war, rather than a discussion about science and data? Is there a way to talk to those on the political left about these issues?
Super interesting question. You’re right it doesn’t make sense.
I think the think tanks on the opposite side of the aisle aren't doing enough to promote tobacco harm reduction. They do promote harm reduction, they’re rightly promoting opioid harm reduction. But they go the other way with tobacco harm reduction, which makes no sense.
I do the numbers. I can tell you what anybody what what a person who smokes look like in any given state. And they're going to be white, mostly male, and making $25,000 or less. So then that should be a Democrat issue, because it's those with fewer economic advantages who smoke.
For the past few years I’ve been yelling at people to quit focusing only on Republicans. And I'll be happy to sit here and say on the record, Trump's not going to save vaping in America if he gets elected. Trump is the reason why the whole world is dealing with disposables, OK? He's the one who banned flavored pods. Then we get disposables in the US market, and then in the rest of the world, as a result. Banning stuff usually leads to undesirable consequences. Seems the world still needs to learn that.
So we may as well give up hope that harm reduction might one day be a bipartisan issue?
Some Democrats do listen. Julie Casimiro for example. She’s a state representative out of Rhode Island, and she was one of the sponsors for the flavor ban bill up there. Then a bunch of folks hit her up on Twitter to oppose it and so she got herself into a vape shop and then kind of got educated about exactly what tobacco harm reduction is. It's not big tobacco coming after your kids. She took her name off of that bill and now she's one of our biggest advocates.
