Is It Time to Abandon the Term “Smoker”?

Words matter, particularly when they’re entwined with issues of identity. Labels have the capacity to erase the multi-faceted nature of our identities by reducing us to a single characteristic—something that overwhelmingly happens, unfortunately, to members of marginalized communities. In the field of substance use disorder, among others, “person-centered language” has become a widely established principle in recent years. A 2021 paper—coauthored by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, itself the subject of calls for a name-change—supported this.