The Biden Administration has announced its intention to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. This comes after earlier Democrat moves that banned all other flavors of cigarettes but exempted menthol under pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus. Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D., said in a statement, “Banning menthol—the last allowable flavor—in cigarettes and banning all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products.”
Democrats want to control every facet of American life through government regulation, and they despise the idea that some Americans may make a risk-based decision that contradicts their prescribed orthodoxy.
The New York Young Republican Club strongly denounces this move. It is a frail attempt to “improve” public health, and it will adversely impact minorities who favor this flavor of tobacco. Not only does this strip away a product that is disproportionately used by African Americans; criminalizing menthol products will create underground markets, which will lead to increased arrests and negative interactions with law enforcement in these communities. That, in turn, will drive greater anti-police sentiment, more riots, and more danger in these communities. It is important to remember that, in 2014, Eric Garner, a black man in Staten Island, was accidentally killed by the NYPD during an arrest for this exact crime.
Why is this a health issue now? Menthol cigarettes, particularly Newports, have been marketed to destroyed communities in urban cities on the Democrat’s watch for the last four decades. If the Biden Administration really cared about public safety, then they should focus on more pressing issues affecting minorities, such as police relations or availability to proper nutrition and diet, rather than taking away one of the least enjoyable aspects of smoking, which only affects such a small portion of the population.
We support all Americans’ right to choose what they consume into their bodies and reject any notion that the government has to make these decisions for us. We also reject niche busybody politics and policymaking, while America has much bigger problems to face in front of us.
And we ask Democrats to finally let African Americans off the Democrat Plantation so they can live their lives freely and outside the subversive effects of government subsidy and control.