Michael McGrady

Michael is a journalist and researcher. His work has been supported by the Knowledge-Action-Change Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship program; the independently administered scholarship is supported by a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. Michael is also the journalist-in-residence and visiting research fellow in tobacco and drug harm reduction policy at the American Consumer Institute, Center for Citizen Research. He conducts consumer-oriented and behavior research on the impacts of public health regulations on people who use drugs, especially nicotine. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Hill and the South China Morning Post. He lives in Colorado.

Very Few Countries Track Smoking Rates Among Indigenous Peoples

All over the world, few countries are taking the trouble to monitor smoking prevalence among Indigenous populations, according to a…

May 25, 2021

What It’s Like to Be a Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocate in Taiwan

Vaping captures headlines in the United States, where outcry over a perceived youth “epidemic” drives health misinformation and efforts to…

April 1, 2021

Tobacco Harm Reduction’s Prospects Under the Biden Administration

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will assume the offices of president and vice president at a time of great societal…

January 6, 2021

Youth Vaping Declines, But the CDC Clings to Its “Epidemic” Narrative

On September 9, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published their latest findings on vaping prevalence among youth.…

October 5, 2020

The Potential and Pitfalls of Providing Vapes to Incarcerated People

How much good can vaping do in a carceral setting? Smoking rates in prisons and jails across the United States…

June 30, 2020

In the UK National Health Service, Staffers Benefit From Subsidized Vapes

Vaping is perceived differently across the pond. Instead of portraying it as a trap to lure kids to a nicotine-dependent…

June 2, 2020

The Damage to Vape Shops Deemed “Non-Essential”—And Their Customers

People who rely on vapes and other reduced-risk nicotine products—overwhelmingly former smokers, or those in the process of switching—face immediate…

April 16, 2020

COVID-19 and Tobacco Harm Reduction: What’s the Relationship?

At publication time, over 113,000 people worldwide were known to be infected by the novel coronavirus, and the number of…

March 10, 2020

Do Anti-Vaping Ads and Media Actually Encourage Youth Vaping?

In the wake of last year’s EVALI lung injury outbreak and a raft of legislative and media reactions to perceived…

February 26, 2020

How the British Approach to Vaping Puts the US to Shame

Over the summer, US media reported that two National Health Service hospitals in England were allowing Ecigwizard, a vape retailer,…

November 27, 2019