Biden’s menthol ban pits civil rights groups against each other
BY COLIN MEYN - 12/29/23 6:00 AM ETOpposition from prominent Black and civil rights groups is threatening to permanently derail Biden administration efforts to ban menthol cigarettes.
The ban has also pitted organizations that are often allies, like the NAACP and the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN), against each other.
The tobacco industry has long been accused of targeting the Black community, especially with menthol products, while simultaneously courting and funding Black-led organizations, politicians and civil rights leaders in an effort to neutralize criticism.
Menthol is a lucrative industry. Menthol-flavored cigarettes accounted for more than a third of all cigarette sales in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The fact that 85 percent of Black people who smoke cigarettes smoke menthol cigarettes, it’s not a mistake. It’s not happenstance. It’s not culture. It’s not a preference for the taste. It is a concerted marketing effort by industry that infiltrated these communities to peddle these drugs, and they’ve done so successfully,” said Mignonne Guy, an associate professor and former chair of the Department of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4374349-biden-menthol-ban-civil-rights-groups/
