1y ago

the FDA is considering a ban on menthol cigarette sales

www.verifythis.com /article/news/verify/health-verify/fda-menthol-cigarette-ban-sales-manufacture/536-3806043b-3043-4e35-a249-dbf1ae24b97f

158 comments

They've already banned menthol in California and it did nothing. Alternatives are already being marketed and sold and some of the better ones recreate the exact same effect but cost $1.20 more per pack at the low end. To put it simply, this is dumb as fuck.
- The point is to make cigarettes as expensive and unappealing as possible.
  
  That's not in anyone's own interests. Smokers have to pay more, tobacco industry gets more money. Literally a lose-lose. Dumb. As. Fuck.

Already banned where I live.
They now sell cigarettes with hollow filters in which a separately sold tiny filter fits, which is infused with menthol.

"According to the American Lung Association, the use of menthol cigarettes is highest among Black, brown and LGBTQ+ communities. Medical groups like the American Lung Association have long advocated for menthol cigarettes to be banned because they can make it easier to start smoking and disproportionately affect minority communities."
Gonna save the minorities from the opression of racism and homophobia by specifically targeting them with a ban.
I've never really understood references to "the left eating itself" until I hit that paragraph. The absolute irony of the anti racist/homophobe sentiment being so overtly racist/homophobic kinda made the light bulb come on.
This adverse thing is adverse, so in order to reduce adversity among minorities, we'll target the specific option they tend towards... to reduce discrimination against them, by discriminating their specific choice. Discriminating against them... to reduce discrimination...
And then you publish that shit? That's kinda fucked IMHO.
- Huh I mean I get what you're saying but can't we just take this potential win? I'm a cancer survivor and it just seems weird to complain about legislation that will reduce cancer. Menthol cigarettes just make it easier to get cancer than plain ones. That's how I see this. Just because minorities and lgbtq are more likely to use them doesn't mean it's racist.
  
  Nah, this ban accomplishes absolutely nothing except producing more expensive alternatives that do the exact same thing.
  I'm glad you survived your battle, but this ban would only serve to disproportionately affect the poor.
  
  It's my body; I get to decide what goes in it. Poison or not. This isn't a win at all.
  
  Menthol cigarettes just make it easier to get cancer than plain ones.
  Were you a smoker, and did you ever smoke menthols? Menthols give a bit different feeling, but I wouldn't say it's that much "easier" to smoke.
  The EU did the same thing to ban menthols a couple years ago, and yet I can still go to the store and buy cigarettes with menthol taste. These new fake-menthols surprisingly feel even smoother to smoke than classic menthols, but it's still not a big difference compared to unflavored cigarettes IMO.
  
  How do menthols make it easier to get cancer than regular smokes? Genuinely asking btw
- Menthol cigarettes are what are consumed by teens as well. Banning the sale of them is a restriction on teen smoking.
- what a wanker take on it, cigarettes should be banned period, they do nothing good for anyoneand are an absolute blight for public health. Any step in making cigarettes worse for accessibility, as marginal as it is, is a step in the right the right direction. People who smoked in France had the same take when they upped the cigarette prices "ooooh it won't stop the poor people smoking blah blah" "they're just doing it for the money they don't care about poor people it will just hurt the common man more". Welll cookie it turns out that 10€ has forced a lot of people to stop and greatly reduced young people who start smoking in the first place. Granted now people have shifted to vaping but compared to cigarettes they're heaven. You can't even compare vaping to smoking.
  
  So it's totally fine to target minorities with a ban if it means forward progress in disincentivising tobacco use? I disagree on the ends justifying the means in this case.
  No arguments at all on the merits of reducing tobacco use, just an objection to throwing minorities under the bus in pursuit of it. I would not actually object to taxation as a means. I wouldn't object to an outright ban even. My objection is to the specificity to minorities... that's not cricket...
  
  I'd agree with you if it was a blanket ban on cigarettes, but it isn't. It's targeted.
- It's racist to ban menthols? "The left eating itself"? Go touch grass.
  
  It's racist to specifically target a type favored by minorities if your intent is to target minorities, and the stated intent is specifically to target minorities with a ban... ironically, to protect them from being discriminated against by their chosen type of cigarettes.
  They published that... they very publicly are saying that they're going to protect these minorities by directly targeting them with a ban. It's not me saying it's a racist/homophobic ban, it's the published premise itself. The entire basis of the ban is published as being to keep cigarettes from affecting blacks, browns, and LGBTQ+ people by eliminating their preferred type.
  How on earth are there people who don't understand this? Are you so tied to the politics that you cannot or will not see this objectively? It's blatant.
  
  Okay, I'm touching grass. Now what? It's not doing anything and is boring.

So I totally forgot about this but, they banned them in Illinois and they just... They're still there, no one around me has stopped selling them
- There’s a story every couple years that the FDA has banned them. But I guess I never see the follow up where it doesn’t work.

“We’re making an effort, see?”
In 5 years:
Studies show menthol cigarette consumption has remained the same.
I do not trust they will handle this without corruption meddling laws and loopholes.
- Canada has outright banned the sale of menthol cigarettes. You cannot buy them in Canada.
  
  Glad to to hear that. Lemme know when the US is matched with Canada in terms of corruption. Also, let me know what happened to spicy skittles. They made them for a year and stopped entirely. They were fucking good, man. It sounds weird, and that’s why it was a Halloween thing, but they were good. Spicy, then sweet. I fucking loved them. And they ripped them away from me. Why?
  
  Even in "Indian reserve"?