President Joe Biden's upcoming national ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars will discriminate against minorities and push smokers to seek out illegal sellers of the products they want rather than work as a public health initiative, opponents of the measure say.
The ban, which has been in the works since 2021, will be made final over the next 30 to 90 days and could be published as early as Nov. 13, The Washington Examiner reported.
The Food and Drug Administration transmitted the ban to the White House Office of Management and Budget in October.
Healthcare advocates say that as Black people and Latinos consume almost 80% of all menthol cigarettes, they are causing a disproportionate amount of cancer-related deaths in the Black community, but other experts say that the regulations will have unintended consequences.
They also point out that the ban does not include options for smoking cessation, so that will push smokers to seek out illicit cigarettes rather than quitting cold turkey.
They added that it's wiser to regulate tobacco options rather than full bans that would lead them to buy unregulated contraband that is most likely coming from China.
Elliot Boyce, the CEO of Diverse Perspectives and a 35-year veteran of the New York State Police, said the Biden administration could have minimized or even avoided the negative effects of a ban if it had consulted with law enforcement groups.
"[Menthol] becomes contraband, and now it becomes a cop issue," Boyce said. "You ban it so you can't buy it from the corner store. Massachusetts and California have already proven that the ban on menthol cigarettes has not stopped cigarette smoking, so now it's going to be forcing individuals to go to the streets to buy cigarettes from their trunks to individuals' cars."
Boyce said that as a result, "the black-market demand will increase, and there are no guidelines for police. You're taking a health issue, which the concern is health — health equity in the black community, and you're basically putting it in the hands of police officers."
Boyce and Art Way, a senior drug policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance, also argued that the statistics being presented by healthcare advocates for the ban are skewed and don't account for decreasing numbers of young smokers in and out of the Black community.
"Education, treatment, and counseling have been reducing the number of individuals who are smoking," Boyce said. "That number is at an all-time low. I believe you also find that this is the best avenue because young adults are not smoking cigarettes. This choice to do this is not going to be effective."
Way added that the justification for the ban is based on tobacco industry promotions from 50 or 60 years ago, not current standards.
"Black people simply are moving away from tobacco, like most folks are, so you have to ask the question, Is it worth it?" said Way. "Is it worth the illicit market activity just as a result, and is it really about helping users, or is it more about a symbolic kind of retribution of policy against the industry?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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