This article originally appeared on the University's Go Where Knowledge Leads page where the stories from researchers and scholars at the University are shared. "To do whatever it takes. To follow every lead. To go to the ends of the universe in pursuit of knowledge. This is what drives the researchers and scholars at the ÍƼöÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ – and it is this spirit that has powered the University’s rise to Carnegie® Classification R1, joining America’s top research universities."
It's funny how life has a way of showing you your purpose when you least expect it. After graduating from college in southern California in 2002, I decided to become a Peace Corps volunteer as a way to immerse myself in the big wide world and work in a local community to try to make a positive impact through service. As luck would have it, they needed high school English teachers in Guinea, a beautiful, culturally rich country in West Africa that struggles with poverty, food insecurity, political corruption, low literacy rates, high unemployment, and lack of access to quality healthcare. Working with the incredibly generous and kind people that I met in Guinea turned into a life-changing experience for me.
I was posted in Siguiri, a thriving mining town in the northeast corner of the country. People made their living mining gold traditionally or as employees of the South African gold mine company in town; driving trucks and taxis between Bamako, Mali and the Conakry, the capital of Guinea; selling goods (mostly from China) in the large market; or farming. Guinean people are often engaged in subsistence living with limited access to modern amenities. Guineans often live in compounds made up of large extended families that are typically surrounded by a fence or wall for security and privacy. One day as I was relaxing in a café enjoying an outrageously cold Coke (a true luxury in a town without reliable electricity), I watched in disbelief as three shiny white pickup trucks emblazoned with the red-and-white logo of one of the world’s most famous cigarette brands rolled into the town. Out hopped these dashing figures dressed in pressed white t-shirts and pants, a desirable look as it signified their outfits were new. They immediately began boldly walking into the people’s private compounds and handing out packs of cigarettes for free. In a town where people were so poor that they would buy cigarettes one or two at a time, this was an extravagant gift. There is no way most people would have the disposable income to buy an entire pack of cigarettes, much less an entire pack of one of the best-known, highest status brands in the world.
Learn more about Jennifer Pearson from the School of Public Health.
At the time, this experience just made me mad. It felt unjust, though my 22-year-old mind wasn’t sure why. Through my experience working with a fellow teacher to start a peer drug education group for high school students, I knew that most people didn’t understand the danger of smoking. Now that I look back on it, this experience was the first time in my incredibly sheltered life that I had really noticed how laws and policies unequally protect people. Tobacco companies stopped giving out free samples in the US at least a decade before I watched this scene in Siguiri. Tobacco companies claim that they advertise only to attract adults who are already smokers to their brand, not to encourage non-smokers to start. That was not what I saw in Siguiri that day – that company with the red and white logo known around the world was giving out free samples to every passerby. They even tried to give me a pack. Wealth, political power, and a functioning democracy protect people from predatory companies that make money selling products that cause disease and death.
"It’s the people with the most wealth and power in society who are the least likely to smoke."
In the US, 480,000 people still die every year from smoking-related illness. While we’ve made huge strides to reduce the number of people who smoke, and teen smoking is at an all-time low, we still see the same dynamics at play in Guinea occurring here. It’s the people with the most wealth and power in society who are the least likely to smoke. Now, smoking is concentrated among those with the least money and power in society, particularly among people with mental health or substance use problems. This dynamic is unjust and it’s what attracts me to tobacco control research.
In my research at the ÍƼöÐÓ°ÉÔ´´, I conduct mixed-method research with a focus on tobacco regulatory science — specifically, e-cigarettes and tobacco products claiming to be “natural,” “additive-free,” or “organic,” and I work to influence policies and regulations at the state and federal level. I am now expanding my area of expertise from tobacco control to all legal drugs, including cannabis, to consider how policies affecting all legal consumer substances interact with and ultimately affect public health on a national and global scale. My colleague Dr. Karla Wagner and I also recently started the Center for Drug Use, Equity, and Policy Research in the School of Public Health to organize and support ÍƼöÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ researchers interested in substance use research so that we can conduct the highest quality research to help the people who have the worst drug-related outcomes and consume the most societal resources. At the end of the day, I’m taking a “head ’em up, move ’em out” approach in my research to use the strongest possible scientific support to take a stand against these harmful marketing practices and work towards positive change to help people live longer, healthier lives and avoid the negative consequences of drug addiction.
