Free Republic

The Food and Drug Administration will release its official plan to phase out minty tobacco products 'in the coming months', setting the policy up to be implemented in 2024. It first announced that it would ban menthol cigarettes in April 2022 in what would be its most consequential regulatory move against Big Tobacco since 2009 when Congress banned all flavors in cigarettes – save for menthol. Researchers from the American Cancer Society also concluded that the ban led to the state smoking rate to fall by one percentage point more compared to states without a ban. Still, Massachusetts law enforcement...

Black activists are slamming New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.) for moving to ban flavored tobacco products while allowing rampant access to flavored marijuana. "You’re telling me that my 21-year-old son can buy all the cannabis he wants, but my grandmother who’s been smoking for 65 years can’t get a cigarette? It doesn’t make sense," said Corey Pegues, a retired black New York Police Department executive who is urging lawmakers to reject Hochul’s proposal. Pegues said the governor’s proposed legislation, which was tucked in her Jan. 10 State of the State plan, will disproportionately affect black voters. Critics say the...

Fake Native American Sen. Elizabeth Warren has joined other Democrat senators in calling for a ban of menthol cigarettes because they are racist. Warren added her name to the effort led by fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey and joined by Rhode Island Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal. In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the senators argued that African-Americans have the highest mortality rate of all ethnic groups due to smoking related diseases, and Menthol cigarettes pose a greater risk. The letter, signed by the senators, cited a 2011 study done by...

The FDA wants to exercise its nanny power by banning menthol cigarettes in another futile bid to protect people from themselves but law enforcement warns that "prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime" as reported by Dan Mangan for CNBC. Paul Carey III, chief of enforcement for the Northern Virginia Cigarette Tax Board, says "the contraband market would thrive under a ban, and would increase criminal activity, including activities by organized crime and terrorist groups." The profit margin for organized crime from contraband tobacco has surpassed the drug trade according to a recent report by the Virginia...

A number of current and former top-ranking law enforcement officials from the tobacco-producing South have blasted a potential menthol cigarette ban as the Food and Drug Administration weighs restrictions on those products, contending that prohibition will spur smuggling, counterfeit cigs and other organized crime.

EU ministers of health have reached political agreement to strengthen EU tobacco legislation in an effort to curb the number of smokers. “I do believe that this is truly an important step because it is about stopping the next generation ever getting hooked,” Irish health minsiter James Reilly, chairing the talks, told reporters on Friday (21 June). The ministers endorsed a deal that would ban menthol, fruit, or chocolate flavored cigarettes. Other rules include imposing large graphic warnings. The European Commission had proposed a warning to cover 75 percent of the package but health ministers agreed to 65 percent. Member...

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban menthol-flavored cigarettes. In a letter addressed Monday to the FDA, Blumenthal said the agency should ban menthol cigarettes because they encourage young people to smoke. “The dangers of menthol tobacco products in general, and to our youth in particular, are highly concerning, and provide abundant grounds for FDA to develop a plan that will result in the removal of menthol from tobacco products to protect public health,” Blumenthal wrote in the letter, addressed to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. Blumenthal is seeking a ban identical to...