US NYT: Black Smokers at Center of New York Fight to Ban Menthol Cigarettes - A proposal to make New York the third state to ban menthol cigarettes has created a furious and expensive lobbying war, and has divided Black leaders.

Black Smokers at Center of New York Fight to Ban Menthol Cigarettes
The New York Times (archive.ph)
By Luis Ferré-Sadurní
2023-04-23 19:03:18GMT

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Black smokers, targeted in decades of aggressive marketing, consume menthol cigarettes at significantly higher rates than white smokers.Credit...James Estrin/The New York Times

ALBANY, N.Y. — A push by Gov. Kathy Hochul to ban menthol-flavored cigarettes in New York has become the focal point of a fierce and expensive lobbying fight, pitting Big Tobacco against the medical community.

Caught in the middle are Black smokers, who smoke menthol cigarettes at higher rates than white smokers, and are the main group the ban is meant to help. Decades of aggressive marketing by tobacco companies have caused Black smokers to consume menthol cigarettes, whose cooling sensation on the throat makes them more appealing and addictive.

Altria and R.J. Reynolds, which produce top-selling menthol brands and are the two largest cigarette makers in the United States, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an army of top lobbyists who have argued to members of Ms. Hochul’s staff and dozens of lawmakers that such a ban would be ineffective public policy. The companies have also funneled at least $135,000 since 2020 to a convenience-store trade group that is fighting the ban.

Their opponents, a coalition of public health groups and a national antismoking organization, have spent over $1 million on ads in newspapers, on television and even in Times Square, disparaging tobacco companies and trying to pressure lawmakers to back Ms. Hochul’s proposal.

Well intentioned as the ban may be, it has angered some Black leaders, including a group of ministers who have rallied against Ms. Hochul’s proposal because they worry it could increase encounters between Black people and the police if menthol cigarettes were to go underground and authorities crack down on sellers.

Other Black opponents of the ban suggest it may be discriminatory, a heavy-handed crackdown on the preferred nicotine fix of Black smokers, even if African American men have the highest rates of lung cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some smokers said that if the state banned menthol cigarettes, they would just switch to unflavored ones.

“I don’t see any logic in that,” said Mike Hayes, 53, as he smoked a Newport on Euclid Avenue in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood on a recent morning. “Take away menthol cigarettes and it’d be complete hell.”

Across the street, Alexander Harper, 38, talked on the phone with his girlfriend as he puffed on a menthol cigarette. He said he had been trying to quit to no avail and would support a ban.

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Alexander Harper said he supports a ban on menthol cigarettes because he hopes it will help him quit.Credit...James Estrin/The New York Times

“As a smoker, you tend to make excuses to continue smoking,” said Mr. Harper, a Postal Service clerk. “Stress at work, stress with your girl, dealing with your bill. I need a cigarette.”

The proposed ban would apply to all forms of flavored tobacco, primarily menthol cigarettes but also flavored cigars and cigarillos, as well as flavored smokeless tobacco.

Ms. Hochul wants the ban, and a $1-per-pack tax increase on all cigarettes, included in the state budget, which she continues to negotiate behind closed doors with her fellow Democrats who control the State Legislature. “This is a public health matter,” the governor said last month, adding that the ban was meant to prevent a new generation from going down “the path of a lifetime of smoking addiction.”

Although lawmakers have signaled their support for the tax increase, the menthol ban’s prospects are far less certain, according to four officials familiar with the negotiations.

The issue has divided Black lawmakers, leaving the measure hanging by a thread in the State Capitol and potentially forcing Ms. Hochul to weigh how much political capital she should expend on the ban, as opposed to other policy priorities.

State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a Democrat who introduced a similar bill to Ms. Hochul’s, said the proposal was “on life support,” and in need of the governor’s strenuous support.

“It’s going to take a herculean effort on her part,” he said. “The big tobacco companies have been masterful at suggesting that to ban menthol is to discriminate against certain communities.”

The debate over the proposed ban has thrust New York to the front lines of a national crackdown on smoking and the influence of Big Tobacco.

In 2021, the Biden administration proposed a federal ban on menthol cigarettes that is making its way through the Food and Drug Administration’s rule-making process, and could be the subject to legal challenges if enacted.

Only two states have enacted bans on menthol cigarettes. Massachusetts became the first in 2019, continuing the decline in overall cigarette sales and smoking in the state, despite menthol cigarettes being smuggled in from neighboring states. In California, where a ban took effect in December, tobacco companies have begun to try to bypass the ban by selling cigarettes that mimic menthol, the latest enforcement challenge for the authorities there.

New York health officials have cast a ban on menthol cigarettes as a mechanism to prevent smoking among young people and to help adults quit. It would affect Black smokers significantly: Nearly 85 percent of Black smokers consume menthol products, compared with 30 percent of white smokers, according to the F.D.A.

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Gwen Carr, whose son, Eric Garner, was killed by the police as he sold loose cigarettes, opposes a ban on menthol cigarettes.Credit...Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

“Menthol is the tobacco industry’s version of a spoonful of sugar, not to help the medicine go down, but rather to help the nicotine start the addiction,” Dr. James McDonald, New York’s acting health commissioner, said.

For tobacco companies, there is a lot of money at stake: Menthol cigarettes account for about one-third of all cigarette sales nationwide, even as the smoking population has shrunk to record lows.

Both Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, which produces brands like Marlboro and Parliament, and R.J. Reynolds, whose portfolio includes Camel and Newport, have activated their sophisticated lobbying operations for the New York fight.

Collectively, the companies have hired more than a dozen lobbying firms, including top Albany shops like Bolton-St. Johns, spending a total of more than $400,000 in January and February, disclosure filings show. The cigarette makers also have year-round contracts with lobbyists totaling over $1.4 million.

Tobacco lobbyists cite the lackluster enforcement of New York’s existing ban on flavored e-cigarettes, which are still available in many smoke shops, and menthol bans elsewhere. They say a ban would simply lead smokers to switch to non-menthol cigarettes.

Altria has exerted its clout in other ways: It has given $174,350 to Democratic and Republican candidates and campaign committees in New York since last year, according to campaign filings.

“Prohibition and tax increases create law enforcement and criminal justice problems, harm vulnerable communities and will lead to losses in projected New York government revenues that fund important programs, like smoking cessation,” Altria said in a statement.

R.J. Reynolds said in a statement that a ban would have little impact on overall cigarette consumption and lead to illegal cigarette sales. “We strongly believe there are more effective ways to deliver tobacco harm reduction than banning products,” the company said.

The coalition supporting the ban includes the American Cancer Society and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a leading antismoking group that has received millions of dollars from former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The organization has paid nearly $1.15 million in January and February to one lobbying firm, Pythia Public, for a multimedia, pro-ban ad blitz.

Many of the ads feature heartfelt testimonials from New Yorkers who have lost loved ones to lung cancer, including Hazel Dukes, the president of the state N.A.A.C.P., and a staunch ally of Ms. Hochul’s.

“This is one of the rare times when, on the money side, it’s a fair fight,” said Blair Horner, the chief lobbyist for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a nonpartisan consumer group that supports the ban. “The science on menthol cigarettes is not in question, it’s just the politics.”

Most of the public opposition to the ban has come not from tobacco companies but from the state’s 8,000 convenience stores, which heavily rely on cigarette sales.

“When you’re talking about 30 percent of our sales, I’m going to die on that hill to try to prevent that,” said Kent Sopris, the president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, a trade group that has spent at least $11,000 on digital and social media ads featuring ominous warnings that a ban would lead to the criminal smuggling of cigarettes and declaring that “prohibition doesn’t work.”

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Although New York already bans flavored e-cigarettes, many are still readily available in smoke shops.Credit...Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Altria has given the association over $70,000 for lobbying since 2020, and R.J. Reynolds has contributed $66,000 in the same time period — making them among the largest funders, according to lobbying disclosures. The association and Altria are also represented by the same powerful lobbying firm Ostroff Associates.

Big Tobacco defeated a similar proposal in the New York City Council in 2019 by joining forces with Black leaders like the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been criticized for receiving money from the industry, to argue that a ban would disproportionately affect Black people. (Mr. Sharpton, who has been conspicuously silent this year, did not respond to a request for an interview.)

Black politicians and faith leaders remain split on the subject.

Some, like Rev. Carl L. Washington Jr., of New Mount Zion Baptist Church in Harlem, have argued that it would unfairly criminalize Black and Hispanic smokers, even though the proposed ban applies to sales, not personal possession. The pastor said he had been contacted by lobbyists on both sides of the issue, and had even talked to Ms. Hochul about the ban, but that he had not taken money from tobacco companies, who have been known to offer pastors financial contributions.

“For years, young Black men and women have gone to prison for selling marijuana,” he said. “Now we’re going to prohibit some cigarettes. We do not live in communist Germany or the Iron Curtain, Russia. This is America, where people have a choice.”

Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who was killed in 2014 by a police officer enforcing cigarette regulations, has spoken out against the proposal.

Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, the Assembly’s Democratic majority leader, who is Black and opposes the ban, said it appeared to be exclusive: “If you want to impact people’s health, you should just ban all cigarettes,” she said.

But Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, a Black Democrat who sponsored the menthol-ban bill in the chamber, said that any economic argument against the proposal is outweighed by the thousands of tobacco-related deaths each year.

The ban holds particular relevance to Ms. Bichotte, the majority whip: Her father died of lung cancer.

“We’re talking about something that’s killing Black people, that was institutionally targeting a community,” she said.
 
“We’re talking about something that’s killing Black people, that was institutionally targeting a community,” she said.
Watch them avert their eyes though whenever you mention 13% and the vast majority of black murders being black on black.

This whole shitshow is about control though, and the powers that be really want the government to control everything now. So even if you support the ban, keep the above in mind because ""they"" view you as nothing more than a tool to exert their own power on others.
 
I'm going to doubt the claim that the menthol helps get people addicted quicker for no reason other than it's a 'fact' being regurgitated by some fucking bureaucrat in a blue state. That's the level of mistrust of 'experts' COVID has caused.

Side note: when I clicked on the link with only a partial read of the headline, I was really hoping it had something to do with seafloor black smokers and hydrothermal vent communities. Shit's crazy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsGTksZAFmE
 
They will just do what they did in bongland when menthols got banned and let you buy a card soaked in menthol you put in the packet so the cigarettes soak up the mint.

I don't smoke any more but even after being off them for like 20 years, if I was diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow the first thing I'd do is go buy a pack of delicious cigarettes.
 
Banning cigarettes for health reasons is one thing, and they managed to outdo themselves by making it about how they're victimized for this proposal because of RACE. I've seen it all.
Here's why I think it's dumb to ban cigs.
How many people don't know that they are unhealthy for you? People make a choice to smoke, knowing the risks. Fast food kills more than cigs, but we ain't banning Blacks from getting fried chicken. I'm pretty sure it's mostly because people don't like the smell of smoke, and health is tagged on for marketing reasons.
 
NYC really just seems like such a shitty place to even be. I wouldn't even want to visit, personally.
It's peak retarded to think this will do anything to curb smoking. People don't smoke because they enjoy the taste of menthol they smoke because they want that nicotine hit. They could outright ban the sell of cigarettes and people would just go back to growing their own tobacco and a black market would come up overnight. Unless they plan on going full caliphate and beating/executing people in the streets for lighting up I really don't see any law-fu having an effect. If they really want to cut down on young people smoking they should just use the same bullshit tactics they use to supposedly get them all pants shitting terrified over the "climate crisis"
 
Well intentioned as the ban may be, it has angered some Black leaders, including a group of ministers who have rallied against Ms. Hochul’s proposal because they worry it could increase encounters between Black people and the police if menthol cigarettes were to go underground and authorities crack down on sellers.
"If you don't give us what we want we'll break the law and the police shouldnt be able to stop us from breaking the law" quite the argument from nog community leaders there.
 
Watch them avert their eyes though whenever you mention 13% and the vast majority of black murders being black on black.

This whole shitshow is about control though, and the powers that be really want the government to control everything now. So even if you support the ban, keep the above in mind because ""they"" view you as nothing more than a tool to exert their own power on others.
Actually it's a fraction of that 13% but good luck convincing anyone otherwise. Now I'm not here to dump on anyone's habits or addictions, but the negative effects of smoking have been known for decades at this point and there are plenty of resources that one can call upon to quit if one really wants to. Besides, getting rid of smoking would remove a massive source of government revenue.
"If you don't give us what we want we'll break the law and the police shouldnt be able to stop us from breaking the law" quite the argument from nog community leaders there.
Imagine that! People who don't like shitty laws ignoring them when convenient to do so!
All drugs should be legal, unless you're a nog.
I'm on board with "decriminalization" because it kinda sorta turns out that jailing individual users and throwing them in with actual criminals with serious offenses is a fundamentally bad idea. Whatever your opinions on substance abuse are, whatever is being done in the so-called "Land of the Free" just isn't fucking working.
Here's why I think it's dumb to ban cigs.
How many people don't know that they are unhealthy for you? People make a choice to smoke, knowing the risks. Fast food kills more than cigs, but we ain't banning Blacks from getting fried chicken. I'm pretty sure it's mostly because people don't like the smell of smoke, and health is tagged on for marketing reasons.
Funny enough, the practice of smoking was never fully socially acceptable and I believe it was King James I who sought to tax and control it, but he generally disliked the smell more than anything.
They will just do what they did in bongland when menthols got banned and let you buy a card soaked in menthol you put in the packet so the cigarettes soak up the mint.

I don't smoke any more but even after being off them for like 20 years, if I was diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow the first thing I'd do is go buy a pack of delicious cigarettes.
As stupid as the ban is, there will be ways around it. At least have the balls to advocate for the total banning of all tobacco products. New Zealand actually passed a lifetime ban on tobacco for anyone born after a certain date. Sure it's dumb on its face but not as much as the menthol bans.
Banning cigarettes for health reasons is one thing, and they managed to outdo themselves by making it about how they're victimized for this proposal because of RACE. I've seen it all.
Race is love, race is life. It's honestly America's most pathetic obsession. But what do I know, freedom of choice is for Nazis.
If they're pissed off over this wait until they ban malt liquor and fried chicken

Come to think of it this explains alot about why wesley snipes was so pissed off in demolition man
LOL @ you if you think their attempts to control what you eat and do are going to be limited to black/white/green people or whatever.
 
I'm on board with "decriminalization" because it kinda sorta turns out that jailing individual users and throwing them in with actual criminals with serious offenses is a fundamentally bad idea. Whatever your opinions on substance abuse are, whatever is being done in the so-called "Land of the Free" just isn't fucking working.
In seriousness I think that there are certain drugs that should be avoided at all costs and drugs that I think should be totally legal. The issue always comes down to enforcement. Shit like meth, heroin, illicit pain pills, we know those are terrible and highly addictive drugs that lead people to destruction of themselves and those around them.
I would like the 'softer' drugs to be treated like booze. We educate you, and when you are old enough you can make the choice if you want to smoke weed or take some shrooms just like with alcohol.
Funny enough, the practice of smoking was never fully socially acceptable and I believe it was King James I who sought to tax and control it, but he generally disliked the smell more than anything.
What was King James I's opinion about vaping?
 
de note: when I clicked on the link with only a partial read of the headline, I was really hoping it had something to do with seafloor black smokers and hydrothermal vent communities. Shit's crazy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsGTksZAFmE
I accidentally ended up watching this whole ass video when it autoplayed a couple months ago, no regrets

 
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Banning cigarettes for health reasons is one thing, and they managed to outdo themselves by making it about how they're victimized for this proposal because of RACE. I've seen it all.
It's not a new argument, they've said similar about crack/cocaine laws.

People who think the laws are racist say crack and cocaine are treated differently because of race and because rich people do cocaine.

People who think the laws are not racist say the same substance used in different ways can have different effects. Also something about purity levels making the cheap stuff more dangerous.
 
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I'm always torn with these stories.

On the one hand, I detest government overreach.

On the other hand, smoking is one of the most vile things mankind has ever invented to do to himself and inflict on those around him, and smokers should have their nicotine-stained fingers crushed in a vice. In Minecraft.

So I really don't know who to hate more, basically, is what I'm saying.
 
I've been told Black Lives Matter. I mean, that's what I'd tell the beggars at the bus stop back when I was still using public transport.

Wonder why they don't think they matter in this case?
 
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In seriousness I think that there are certain drugs that should be avoided at all costs and drugs that I think should be totally legal. The issue always comes down to enforcement. Shit like meth, heroin, illicit pain pills, we know those are terrible and highly addictive drugs that lead people to destruction of themselves and those around them.
I would like the 'softer' drugs to be treated like booze. We educate you, and when you are old enough you can make the choice if you want to smoke weed or take some shrooms just like with alcohol.

What was King James I's opinion about vaping?
Honestly it's almost impossible to enforce this shit in a meaningful way, and believe me, any level of harshness short of straight up execution of dealers just doesn't work, and even then the profit margins are tempting even for people who are averse to lethal injection.

On the other hand, treating cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms, and/or alcohol/tobacco like methamphetamine and heroin not only fails to fix the root causes of drug abuse, it also pulls people who would probably never dream of a life of crime into a world they never asked for. Who knew that smoking that joint would eventually end you up joining a prison gang for camaraderie and survival down the road.

King James I is the Lord of Vape Nation and the Phat Cloudz Club. Vape is Love, Vape is Life. ✌️
 
On the one hand, I detest government overreach.

On the other hand, smoking is one of the most vile things mankind has ever invented to do to himself and inflict on those around him, and smokers should have their nicotine-stained fingers crushed in a vice. In Minecraft.
Think of it like this, when has the government done something out of the kindness of their hearts?

Nothing is guaranteed but death and taxes.
 
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