Nicotine consumers who have made life-changing switches to safer products, and their organizations, form the heart of the tobacco harm reduction (THR) movement—and are its most powerful messengers.
So it was with dismay that people who care about THR learned that the leading United States group Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association (CASAA), which boasted 250,000 registered members, will be ending its active advocacy in August.
On May 27, Executive Director Alex Clark announced that due to lack of funds, “2025 will be CASAA’s last year of active engagements,” and that the group would “be ceasing our legislative advocacy at the end of August.” The organization’s website, he noted, will remain online as “a valuable educational resource documenting the history of vaping, explaining tobacco harm reduction, and celebrating the consumer-led revolution in adoption of safer nicotine products.”
“Heartbreaking,” was among the many reactions from consumers and advocates.
“I think we effectively demonstrated that consumers are a force to be reckoned with on this issue.”
CASAA was founded in 2009. Since then, the nonprofit has published media and educational materials, submitted briefs in relevant court cases and comments on proposed FDA rules, funded research, and spoken out in national media.
“I think we effectively demonstrated that consumers are a force to be reckoned with on this issue,” Clark told Filter.
“From delaying implementation of final rules, to driving engagement on state and local legislation, to representing consumers in the media and at professional conferences, CASAA has claimed a seat at the table and earned our place in these conversations,” he said. “And we did it all on a shoestring budget.”
Since August 2024, the organization has been run purely by volunteers. It had put out an urgent plea for funding the month prior and approached potential donors, but was left unable to continue paying a salaried staff of just two people.
As CASAA board member and reporter Jim McDonald wrote, the organization received about $2,000 a month from consumer donors, but needed a minimum of $10,000 a month to cover expenses such as software to track legislation, communications to members and basic staffing. Clark, who has been CEO since 2017, has not been paid for the past year.
When that voice is reliant on outside funding, it is vulnerable.
Another of the people who volunteered their time for CASAA is Logan Evans, its board vice president.
“It’s been nothing but an honor to work with so many passionate people, create engaging and meaningful content, and work to protect access to safer nicotine alternatives,” Evans told Filter.
“Being part of CASAA, for me, has been an opportunity to help amplify the voice of people who may otherwise feel helpless or lost in the onslaught of misinformation and poor policy that tobacco harm reduction has faced.”
But when that voice is reliant on outside funding, it is vulnerable.
Clark explained that CASAA has always accepted financial support from parts of the nicotine industry. Prior to 2016, this came from smaller, independent vape shops and manufacturers. But the balance shifted that year, when the organization also sought support from large companies, including tobacco companies that make safer nicotine products.
Industry funding is a fraught question in harm reduction generally, and tobacco harm reduction in particular. Funding from tobacco companies, especially, carries stigma and becomes a target for opponents of THR. Meanwhile, THR advocates who don’t receive industry funding are often falsely accused of doing so.
CASAA made the decision to take that money in support of its mission. “Their customers are our people too,” Clark said of tobacco companies. “Our message has been consistent since 2009 regardless of the source of the funding: Consumer access to and awareness of low-risk, smoke-free nicotine products is an enormous benefit to public health, and people who smoke deserve the opportunity and encouragement to make the switch.”
“We knew there may come a time when CASAA was on the opposite side of the legislative priorities of our largest funders and we would face losing their support.”
Moreover, he added, tobacco companies, due to their infrastructure and retailer networks, will inevitably have a big role if a mass transition to safer products is to be realized.
But according to Clark, the nature of CASAA’s advocacy meant that reliance on this funding had inherent risks.
“We knew there may come a time when CASAA was on the opposite side of the legislative priorities of our largest funders and we would face losing their support,” he said.
One example of differing aims was PMTA registry bills, which seek to end sales of vaping products that aren’t FDA-authorized. Tobacco companies that own FDA-authorized products have supported them; CASAA, on behalf of people who use unauthorized products, has not.
“Despite our consistent engagement, our small, individual donations didn’t keep pace with the loss of this support,” Clark said. “Certainly organizations in such a position have a choice: Stay quiet and keep the funding, bend to the donors’ priorities; or stick to our mission and mount opposition. CASAA chose to stand up for our membership and protect access to a wider variety of nicotine products than what the FDA has authorized.”
Clark expressed pride in his organization’s achievements and legacy, saying that “the integrity of CASAA’s advocacy remains.”
“It’s heartbreaking to lose an organization that has been such a vital source of knowledge and advocacy.”
It’s had a big influence beyond the US, as Maria Papaioannoy-Duic, of the Rights 4 Vapers consumer advocacy group in Canada, can attest.
“It’s heartbreaking to lose an organization that has been such a vital source of knowledge and advocacy,” she told Filter. “I hope those who have learned from CASAA carry that knowledge forward and continue the important work it championed for so long.”
“To all consumers out there, keep using your voice,” she added. “Your voice is powerful and essential to this fight.”
Harm reduction educator Phillip Kirschberg said that CASAA has been at the center of THR advocacy throughout the 15 years he’s been using safer nicotine products.
“Whether I’m speaking with a state representative about the importance of less harmful alternatives to cigarettes, or simply posting on social media, I will always ask myself if Julie Woessner [CASAA’s director of national policy] would approve of my messaging,” he told Filter.
CASAA showed him the importance of consumer involvement, he added, and taught him how to refine consumer advocacy “to have the greatest impact.”
“My sincere hope is that we will one day look back on this past year as a dark but temporary step along the way.”
Patrick Riffe from Texas hosts a radio show dedicated to THR, and described CASAA as a “clearing house, the town crier, the facilitator and organizer for US advocacy.”
“They are the ones who spotlighted local, state and federal attempts to limit consumer access and made it easy for consumers’ voices to be heard,” he told Filter.
When the US is such a huge country with so many jurisdictions, he continued, it is hard for consumers to keep tabs on myriad THR regulations and laws in the pipeline—a key role CASAA has played.
“Without them no consumer would even know about it,” Riffe said, when “most people are too busy with life to track what their representatives are doing behind their back.”
The CASAA press release concluded that, “We are not making this announcement from a place of desperation or futility. This is not the end, but merely a step in the evolution of consumers’ awareness, acceptance, and access to safer nicotine products and a healthier future.”
With this in mind, I asked Clark how he saw the future of THR advocacy. He said the experiences of consumers would remain vital to research, policy and product development.
And with millions of people in the US using safer nicotine products to quit combustible tobacco, their numbers—and potential power—continue to swell.
“My sincere hope,” Clark said, “is that we will one day look back on this past year as a dark but temporary step along the way.”
Image (cropped) via Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives
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