Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency (75% of black smokers enjoy it - KOOL!)

NY Times ^ | STEPHANIE SAUL

[Libloather]

Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency
By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: May 13, 2008

Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time.

The legislation, which would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products, would try to reduce smoking’s allure to young people by banning most flavored cigarettes, including clove and cinnamon.

But those new strictures would exempt menthol — even though menthol masks the harsh taste of cigarettes for beginners and may make it harder for the addicted to kick the smoking habit. For years, public health authorities have worried that menthol might be a factor in high cancer rates in African-Americans.

The reason menthol is seen as politically off limits, despite those concerns, is that mentholated brands are so crucial to the American cigarette industry. They make up more than one-fourth of the $70 billion American cigarette market and are becoming increasingly important to the industry leader, Philip Morris USA, without whose lobbying support the legislation might have no chance of passage.

“I would have been in favor of banning menthol,” said Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, who supports the bill. “But as a practical matter that simply wasn’t doable.”

Even the head of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, a nonprofit group that has been adamantly against menthol, acknowledges that the ingredient needed to be off the bargaining table — for now — because he does not want to imperil the bill’s chances.

[writer33]

Marlboro Menthol here I come.

:-)

[Libloather]

...tobacco actually tastes really good.

So does beer. I'm holding on tight.

[Sender]

I used to smoke Djarums when I did smoke, a long time ago. One every few hours was enough. People always smelled them and thought they were pot.

[Libloather]

Next the Democrats will go after Colt45 and Mad Dog.

Guns and pit bulls?

[Libloather]

Marlboro Menthol here I come.

Could mean a tax break. (Maybe the last one on earth!)

[ReignOfError]

If this is Congress's first foray into tobacco regulation, then why has BATFE had a "t" in it for decades?

The government has been able to control its taxation and its interstate shipment -- not its contents.

[coloradan]

But isn’t that “regulation?” Isn’t the whole point of the vastly overexpansive commerce clause the “regulation” of interstate commerce?

[writer33]

Could mean a tax break.

Great. I have to take a drag on a peppermint stick for a tax break. Thanks. :-)

[philetus]

The government has been able to control its taxation and its interstate shipment — not its contents. “

All they care about is the money.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Check post 16.

[lewislynn]

One night on Leno Robin Williams was mocking Obama after the election where Obama announces there will be Newports and grape juice served in the rose garden after the swearing in.

[Nailbiter]

if one is a smoker that is a true statement

[IncPen]

When I was a kid you had to start smoking cold turkey.

Kids today don’t know how good they have it. They get the gum, then the patch. Heck, they’re hooked before they ever light up!

[Nailbiter]

do not worry when we get NHS, smokers will be cut off from health care