UC Merced Magazine | Volume XVIII, Issue IV

Nicotine and Cannabis Center Working to Make Inroads Among Smokers, Policymakers By Sam Yniguez As the new director of UC Merced’s Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center (NCPC), Project Scientist Arturo Durazo has his work cut out for him. Previous Director Professor Anna Song, who led the center for its first five years of existence and is now taking on an advisory role, believes he’s the man for the job. And while some of the internal operations may be changing, Durazo and Song both stress that the mission of the NCPC remains the same: to support tobacco control in this region and be part of California’s Endgame initiative to end tobacco use in the state by 2035. “We are very fortunate to have someone of Arturo’s caliber taking the reins,” said Song, who has assumed the role of the

university’s interim associate vice provost for Academic Personnel. “We have worked very closely over the years, and I am supremely confident in his ability to lead the NCPC as it transitions into its next phase.” That next phase involves securing funding for renewal – which would allow the researchers to continue the work that started in 2018 – and creating a strategic plan to disseminate all the data that has been accumulated over the years. “The long-term goal is to leverage all of the data that we have as well as the relationships we’ve established,” said Durazo. “There’s a network now that’s been created to effect change and what I’ve been working on is a systematic plan of attack.” The NCPC’s mission is a heavy lift in the San Joaquin Valley, an area Song and Durazo agreed is greatly underserved and under-resourced. “We’re in a health-professional desert,” said Song. “And because we don’t have a lot of health professionals, cessation clinics and support are way down the list in terms of priorities.”

Passivity and Silos Lack of infrastructure, Song said, is behind the high smoking prevalence rates in the Central Valley (18-19%) relative to coastal regions (4-5%). She also cited a tendency for others in the field to “work in silos.” The NCPC plans to use its network to knock those walls down. The center also plans to use its advocacy army to catalyze a movement aimed at breaking through the passivity that Durazo said is prevalent in Valley city halls on this issue, despite the well-documented harmful effects of tobacco. “Because it’s not illegal to smoke or sell, there’s a general laissez-faire attitude across the Valley,” said Durazo. “Also, elected leaders don’t want to be seen as anti-business, so it’s put on the back burner.”

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