The FDA wants to ban menthols! Hooray - one more nail in the coffin of smoking.....or is it?
My guess is that the ban will turn out to be illegal since the FDA allows many other additives in cigarettes like glycerine and allegedly cocoa - so why go after menthols?
Then there is the racist angle - African-Americans and Latinos typically smoke menthols - especially in the teen years. That forces African-Americans into an awkward debate: smoking is bad but why is our bad somehow worse than yours? Oh right, you’re helping us.
The real issue here is – where do the do-gooders want us to go? Smokers aren't just suckers hooked by tobacco companies. They usually smoke for a reason. On a practical level this ban will force people to alternatives. Safer ones we think, like e-Cigarettes. Or off-prescription substances like Adderol and Valium. All illegal or frowned upon by the
FDA.
FDA.
The point is that people aren't going to quit just because someone tells them to and when government officials dictate a solution without any thought to smokers motivation or alternatives, they generally create a situation worse than they started with.
This is a zero-sum game. Take away smoking and people will reach for something else. We need to talk long and hard about the something else……
Footnote:
Once upon a time menthols were the choice of white blue collar workers so things like who smokes menthols and why, could change, of course.
Wall Street Journal on the proposed Menthol ban.
Chicago Tribune on the Debate in the African American Community
