Yesterday in comments I mentioned that black smokers were the primary market for menthol cigarettes and, sure enough, in his latest Washington Post column Eugene Robinson is unhappy about the Biden Administration’s announcement that it would ban menthol cigarettes. The source of his unhappiness? Disparate impact:
Smoking is bad for you, and any measure that helps people quit is theoretically good. But the federal government’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes leaves a sour taste in my mouth — and not a nicotine-flavored one.
Making it illegal to make or sell Newports, Kools and other such brands will have a massively disparate impact on African American smokers, nearly 85 percent of whom smoke menthols. By contrast, only around 30 percent of White smokers and 35 percent of Hispanic smokers choose menthol-flavored varieties. Black smokers have every right to feel targeted by the planned prohibition.
Public health experts can reasonably argue that the pending rule targets African Americans in the best possible way. The real disparate impact, so this thinking goes, is in the way tobacco companies have aggressively marketed menthol cigarettes in Black communities over the decades. I understand all of that. But I can’t rush to cheer a new policy that puts a terribly unhealthy — but perfectly legal — practice enjoyed so disproportionately by African Americans on the wrong side of the law.
Despite the Biden Administration’s statements that the ban was not to be enforced against individual smokers but against the companies that manufacture menthol cigarettes, he’s still unhappy. There are some people who will never be satisfied and, sadly, some of them are black. One of the reasons they’re dissatisfied is that they’re suspicious of everything—the government, physicians, you name it.
It reminds me of one of Sam Clemens’s famous wisecracks: “Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.” Just don’t expect people to be happy about it, I suppose.
I’m a bit surprised that cigarettes are still being made and sold in the U. S. at all. My mom was a chain smoker by the time she was 14. Eventually, it killed her and it affected my health as well. I had classmates who were two pack a day men by the time they were 12. That’s both unhealthy and expensive. I suspect many of them are dead by now.
I guess it’s because there are so many different constituencies that insist on them. Not just the smokers and the tobacco companies but the tobacco growers, the people who work for them, and the people dependent on their trade.
I think they’re still legal because a ban is unenforceable, in practically.
Menthols are likely being targeted because cigarettes of other flavors are already banned,
Presumably they target children.
All I can assume is, the Biden administration has concluded that with smoking bans almost everywhere, the Overton window has shifted enough to make possible that which was not.
If African Americans believe the law is targeting them that will fit the narrative and actually make them happier.
(See! See! How they treat us?)
Heads I win tails you lose.
Like to add that as a former smoker l’d like the government to attempt a total ban.
Might be entertaining.
Worry though, about the slippery slope. I do like ice cream, hotdogs, and beer.