I detect a non-smoker lurking about somewhere...
Posted on 02/15/2017 7:38:22 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
Tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds, the top seller of the menthol cigarettes favored by most black smokers, is seizing on the hot button issue of police harassment of blacks to counter efforts by public health advocates to restrict menthol sales.
In recent months, the company quietly has enlisted black groups and leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist, and former U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek of Florida, to hold meetings at prominent black churches on the theme of “Decriminalizing the Black Community.”
Sharpton and Meek, along with speakers from groups involved in criminal justice reform, have warned of the unintended consequences of banning cigarettes with the minty, throat-numbing additive — namely, the risk of creating a black market and giving police new reasons to lock up black males. The meetings have been held at churches in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Oakland, and in other forums.
Reynolds makes Newport cigarettes, the most popular menthol and the No. 2 U.S. cigarette brand overall, with a market share of nearly 14 percent. The company has paid travel costs for the panelists and contributed to their organizations, according to the panelists and Reynolds spokesman David Howard. However, promotional fliers suggest that Sharpton and his National Action Network are the main sponsors of the meetings, rather than the tobacco company. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at greensboro.com ...
Sharpton defending menthol heaters.
Imagine that.
I bought cartons of Newports at the commissary here in the US at $3 a piece and sold the packs for $10 a piece in Korea. I had lines out the door. They carried Salem and Kool but not Newports.
The menthol sterilizes black men. Everyone knows that.
I thought it was the CIA who got blacks addicted to menthols...
That’s an old wives’ tale, like the menthol also crystallizes the lungs and turns it into glass.
AL SHARPTON is to Blacks in today’s America
as
GEORGE SOROS was to Jews in WW2 Hungary
Kool.
Do Newports have more menthol or less menthol?
I remember buying cigs for 25¢ a pack at the Ft. Bragg commissary in the 70’s.
No idea, I don’t smoke. But certain people prefer them over Kools and Salem and that’s who I sold them to. Three duffel bags worth.
Best of my memory from 21+ years ago when I worked in the cig industry, Newport had a lower dose of menthol than Salem and Kool, at that time.
I think you’re right.
I don’t get why anyone would think that banning menthol cigarettes would make very much difference in smoking rates.
Well, there goes Negrodamus’ ‘nobody knows’.
I detect a non-smoker lurking about somewhere...
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