Edit: wait shit the menthol ban is fine it's only hitting the producers, this isn't a war on drugs thing
Fuck tobacco tho, like I would 100% completelly legalize marihuana and completely illegalize tobacco.
Netflix told me its also bad cuz nowadays there are more young teens addicted to nicotine than ever. And I mean including-1850-child-miners more than ever
intersectionality doesn't count for young people
Studies show that menthol increases the appeal of tobacco and facilitates progression to regular smoking, particularly among youth and young adults. Menthol masks unpleasant flavors and harshness of tobacco products, making them easier to start using. Tobacco products with menthol can also be more addictive and harder to quit by enhancing the effects of nicotine.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-commits-evidence-based-actions-aimed-saving-lives-and-preventing-future-generations-smokers
Yeah nothing Zoomers love more than that sweet, sweet menthol
Menthol kinda numbs the lungs and makes it easier to smoke more and inhale deeper without as much irritation
Back when I was in HS (ancient history), clove cigarettes were 100% smoked by white people. Is that still a thing?
They were banned. But you can still get clove cigarillos.
I mean why wonder, this was explicitly their stated reasoning, that menthols are disproportionately harmful to black people
Maybe so although I think the 'increased repression' thing is also kinda hollow since it wouldn't be a criminalization of smoking menthols, it would be a restriction on the supply side (banning production and sale), like with flavored vapes where nobody is being frisked for mango juul pods, they iust banned them from shops. But yeah I don't agree with it as a policy (I smoke menthols) its just not a gotcha that the policy is racist because the fact that their sale disproportionately harms black people was part of the reasoning
Oh sorry for doubling up on that, but it was a very common response on this site in general when the proposal was first put forward, probably the mainstream view here which bugged me.
When I was growing up we had these very cool cigarettes that were all black, light tobacco and had sugar around the filters, so when you smoked them you could lick your lips and it would taste sweet. I knew dozens of youngs who started smoking on those, and its tough because I hate thinking the big gov would stop me from living my life, hated it even more back then, but those definitely shouldn't be sold, I regret starting smoking when I was a kid. I feel similar about menthols, I hate that they exist at all, but I will really resent if I can't get them, and not just as an addict, just because I wanna be able to live my life.
I also lived through the grossification of ciggy packets in the EU, where they made them all very ugly and look the same. I hate ads so I think that's brilliant, and it has helped
Pretty weird that Biden wants to ban menthol products I wonder why
You are telling on yourself. You are telling everyone that you did absolutely zero research into the FDA's ban because this was explicitly stated in the ban. The ban was lead by black advocacy and doctor groups. The menthol ban is the only good thing that has come out of the Biden presidency so far.
With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations, and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom are far more likely to use these tobacco products,
One study suggests that banning menthol cigarettes in the U.S. would lead an additional 923,000 smokers to quit, including 230,000 African Americans in the first 13 to 17 months after a ban goes into effect. An earlier study projected that about 633,000 deaths would be averted, including about 237,000 deaths averted for African Americans.
For far too long, certain populations, including African Americans, have been targeted, and disproportionately impacted by tobacco use.
If implemented, the FDA’s enforcement of any ban on menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars will only address manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, importers and retailers.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-commits-evidence-based-actions-aimed-saving-lives-and-preventing-future-generations-smokers
The FDA’s overdue response to the petition was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC), Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the National Medical Association (NMA).
The AATCLC strongly encourages that tobacco control activists throughout the country continue to fight to ban the sale of menthol tobacco products at the local, state and federal level.
For too long, tobacco companies have been enabled to promote menthol cigarettes to the Black community, preying particularly on Black youth. We urge the FDA to move swiftly to implement the ban and remove these harmful products from the market without further delay.
https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/fda-agrees-ban-menthol-protect-african-americans
Even when we look at the source of the graph in the original post, it says the same thing.
African Americans suffer the greatest burden of tobacco-related deathof any racial or ethnic group in the United States.
Mentholflavored tobacco products are a big driver of these disparities.
Big Tobacco’s shameful record includes targeting youth and adults in communities of color and underserved populations with menthol products resulting in the disproportionately higher use rates by minority smokers
Cigarette companies are known to specifically target low-income neighborhoods with in-store advertising for menthol cigarettes.
https://www2.heart.org/site/DocServer/Infographic_Menthol.pdf
Try to think about the ban from a Marxist perspective. Menthol cigarettes are not illegal to own, produce, or use. You are still allowed to own menthol cigarettes and create your own menthol cigarettes. The commodity form of menthol cigarettes is banned. In Marxism, a commodity is an object that is created with the intent of being exchanged. In this sense, a commodity is a relationship between people. The nature of the menthol cigarette commodity is that it is a relationship where tobacco corporations exploit mainly black communities and low income communities. The FDA's ban of menthol cigarettes breaks this relationship without banning the ownership or personal use of menthol cigarettes.
Oh shit I was entirely uninformed I didn't know they were still legal for individuals. Thanks a bunch
The government tried to ban all flavored cigarettes some years back on the grounds it encouraged children to smoke.
They didn't think about menthols. Whoops! Immediate cries of racism and the plan was cancelled. Disproportionate impact on blacks. Surprised to see it claw itself out of the grave again...it's still racist.
It's racist for you to think that black people inherently smoke menthol cigarettes as a characteristic of being black, ignoring the fact that the cigarette companies spent decades manipulating black children with targetted advertising campaigns.
The facts are that most people who buy menthols are black. Ergo, banning them has a disproportionate impact and is racist. I don't see what's changed since the last time they tried.
Notice that nobody actually bothered to ask the Afro-American community how they felt about this.
Notice that nobody actually bothered to ask the Afro-American community how they felt about this.
You could not be more wrong if you tried. The ban was lead by a black advocacy group.
The FDA’s overdue response to the petition was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC), Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the National Medical Association (NMA).
https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/fda-agrees-ban-menthol-protect-african-americans
https://www.savingblacklives.org/our-goal
TIL 16 people is the Afro-American community. https://www.savingblacklives.org/about-us
As usual, nobody bothered to ask them and just makes decisions on their behalf. Let's see where they're headquartered: White 54.2% Asian 24.0% Hispanic or Latino 10.4% Black 6.4%. March 2019 cost of living index in zip code 94107: 156.0 (very high, U.S. average is 100)
Does this sound representative of the Afro-American community? Why or why not?
Wow. Once you learned that the ban was lead by black people, you try to disqualify those black people because they don't agree with you.
You actually looked up their geographic location and then looked at the racial statistics in their area to determine if these specific people were black enough.
because they don’t agree with you.
Negative. Do they represent the Afro-American community? They're 16 people who are in an extremely wealthy area with few blacks.
The other 3 organizations are as white as Wonder Bread.
You are just making this up as you go. You had no idea that black people support this from the start and you didn't even do research into the other 3 groups.
You call the National Medical Association "white as wonderbread". The National Medical Association (NMA) is the largest and oldest national organization representing African American physicians and their patients in the United States. The president of the NMA is Richard Allen Williams, who also founded the Association of Black Cardiologists. The NMA represents the interests of more than 30,000 African American physicians.
It's funny that you mention that because police organizations oppose the ban.
As you mention, it's doctors, black doctors, and other black advocacy groups who support the ban. Those who oppose the ban are police, black police, black capitalists, and convenience store owners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menthol_cigarette#Opposition_to_proposed_ban
Secondly, the ownership of menthol cigarettes is not being banned. Tobacco companies are being banned from selling menthol cigarettes. People will still be allowed to own and create their own menthol cigarettes.
