Photo provided by Arkansas State Police
(Kenneth Schrupp) – California attorney General Rob Bonta led a 21-state coalition demanding that the Biden administration ban menthol cigarettes, claiming they are disproportionately consumed by black smokers, LGBTQ smokers and smokers with mental health problems.
“For far too long, tobacco companies have intentionally targeted specific communities across this nation, particularly communities of color, which has contributed to significant health disparities and inequities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The time to act is now. I urge the Biden Administration to finally halt the sale of these flavored tobacco products, which will lay the groundwork to reverse decades of disparities in tobacco use and save lives.”
Bonta claims “menthol cigarette use is also disproportionately high among LGBTQ+ smokers, smokers with mental health problems, and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations,” and that “this flavoring remains a primary reason as to why young people initiate and become addicted to smoking.”
“Any consideration of menthol prohibition should be made in the context of extremely low youth use of the product, the lack of association between menthol use rates in states and youth smoking, the costs of enforcing prohibition, especially for minority communities, and other less costly ways of reducing smoking, such as increasing the availability of safer nicotine alternatives like e-cigarettes and traditional smoking cessation services,” wrote Reason Foundation policy experts Guy Bentley and Jacob James Rich in an analysis.
The California-led coalition includes Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Mariana Islands, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and the District of Columbia.
By
Kenneth Schrupp | The Center Square
