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President Trump Ends Biden’s War on Menthol Cigarettes

President Trump Ends Biden’s War on Menthol Cigarettes

The best part? FDA declined to comment with its usual tisk-tisking of Trump directives. It can’t, as there is the newly-ordered temporary ban on public communication.

Biden essentially conducted a “War on Cigarettes” that began early in his administration. From the outset, menthol cigarettes were in the crosshairs, with a plan to mandate their elimination from the market. The administration later backed off on this proposal after it faced a backlash from Black communities, a key market for this type of cigarette. That was April, 2024.

Interestingly, once Biden abandoned the presidential race, the plans for the menthol cigarette ban resumed as the rule-making process began anew.

Now Biden’s “War on Menthol Cigarettes” has ended, as President Donald Trump has withdrawn the proposed rule.

The regulators are the hardest hit.

The Food and Drug Administration had in April 2022 proposed to ban the sale of flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes after several health advocacy groups said they were highly addictive, and played a role in luring young people to smoking.

A Jan. 21 filing by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a White House agency, showed the proposal has been “withdrawn”.

Menthol cigarettes, which comprise a third of the industry’s total U.S. market share, have also faced scrutiny for their disproportionate impact on the health of Black communities.

“It is deeply disappointing that a final rule was not issued in a timely manner … it is more critical than ever that states and cities step up their efforts to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products,” said Yolonda Richardson, CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

It is more proof that the Trump administration has learned a few lessons about “science” being used to remove choice from citizens.

Black people die at significantly higher rates than White people of smoking-related illnesses including stroke, heart disease and lung cancer: They make up 12% of the population in the US, but people who are Black account for 41% of smoking-related premature deaths and 50% of the life-years lost associated with menthol tobacco product use between 1980 and 2018, one study found.

Within five years, the elimination of menthol cigarettes could close the gap in lung cancer deaths, the same study found.

“The FDA’s previously proposed rule to ban menthol would save millions of American lives from painful, preventable deaths. There is no scientific research that supports withdrawing the rule, yet unfortunately, the FDA has done so,” said Laurent Huber, executive director for Action on Smoking and Health in an email. “ASH will continue to advocate on behalf of Americans’ health, and because menthol makes youth smoking initiation easier and smoking harder to quit, we will continue to push for a ban on menthol in tobacco products.”

Did those studies account for dietary differences? Do these differences relate to the location of residence? Do the studies factor in exercise variations?

Or was this “study” another example of the many toxic fruits of the DEI-science complex? Perhaps Trump has other priorities than regulating what legal substances people use.

Additionally, Trump and his team may not wish to follow up with the inevitable consequences of limiting the supplies of popular menthol cigarettes. The proposed bans raised significant concerns about the expansion of the black market for menthol cigarettes.

In California, those black market options include Mexican cartels.

“Cross-border smuggling, theft and loosie sales, those are all part of California’s black market—but I think you have this other aspect that exists too,” said Anna Ready Blom, NACS director of government relations, noting reports that Mexican drug cartels are capable of producing and smuggling menthol cigarettes into the States. “It’s scary stuff.”

These concerns were echoed in a letter sent by the House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green (R-TN) to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas regarding FDA’s proposed menthol ban.

“CJNG and other Mexican cartels will have significant financial incentive to utilize their existing fentanyl and narcotics networks to push tobacco sales in the United States,” Green wrote.

The best part…The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declined to comment with its usual tisk-tisking of Trump directives. It can’t, because of the newly-ordered temporary ban on public communication.

So much winning, I’m tempted to light a cigar up in celebration.

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Comments


 
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WestRock | January 25, 2025 at 7:41 pm

Instead of

So much winning, I’m tempted to light a cigar up in celebration.

I am holding out for …

So much winning, I’m tempted to light an incandescent light bulb in celebration.

💡

If there’s such a thing as responsible drug use: avoiding dangerous combinations of drugs, avoid re-using needles, knowing how to administer first aid —

Why not the same for responsible smoking: smoke no more than 3 packs a day, avoid menthol cigarettes, knowing how to administer chemotherapy?


     
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     4
    Milhouse in reply to Paula. | January 26, 2025 at 2:10 am

    If you’re smoking anyway, there’s no reason to avoid menthol. Menthol cigarettes are no worse for you than any other. The whole idea of banning them is to make smoking less enjoyable in the vain hope that some people will choose not to smoke.

    But people don’t choose to smoke because cigarettes taste good. It’s only once they’ve already decided to smoke that they try to find ones whose taste they like.


 
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sfharding | January 25, 2025 at 11:56 pm

I starred smoking at the age of 15. It was a bad decision because I did not appreciate the powerful addictive nature of nicotine. 55 years later, having smoked one pack of cigarettes every day for 55 years, I am pleased to announce that I am in perfect health,


 
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diver64 | January 26, 2025 at 6:12 am

The numbers make no sense. The most recent studies find the same or nearly identical numbers for all groups outside of American Indians at 12% of their respective populations. Indians are over 20%. That being the case, if blacks in the US have over 40% of the lung and cancer related issues then either something else is going on such as life style, diet, etc or they are genetically predisposed to tobacco related illnesses.


     
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    E Howard Hunt in reply to diver64. | January 26, 2025 at 7:19 am

    The numbers provided are meaningless. The same nonsensical arguments are made with incarceration rates.
    They chain smoke, drug and drink to excess, but wokesters cannot accept this, especially when their only interaction with blacks is limited to betterbehaving corporate token hires.


 
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Dolce Far Niente | January 26, 2025 at 11:57 am

The claim that menthol cigarettes are somehow more addictive is just a flat out lie (as are many of the anti-tobacco claims). And I suspect the statistics about smoking related deaths is similar to covid claims, correlation being substituted for causality.

I know as a teen back in the 60s, had menthol been my only choice I would have never taken up smoking. Hey, maybe ALL cigs should be made menthol!

Medical cannabis is good? Menthol cigs are bad?


     
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    WestRock in reply to smooth. | January 26, 2025 at 1:32 pm

    Former cannabis smoker. Never a cigarette. Now with Stage-4 metastatic lung cancer. No rhyme or reason.


       
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      Milhouse in reply to WestRock. | January 27, 2025 at 4:54 pm

      Lung cancer existed in Europe long before tobacco was brought over from America. Smoking increases your chance of getting it by some enormous factor, and if everyone stopped smoking its incidence would drop to a small fraction of the current rate, but it wouldn’t go away.

      A close relative of mine never smoked in his life, neither tobacco nor marijuana, and still died of lung cancer. Sometimes it just happens.


 
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CommoChief | January 26, 2025 at 5:14 pm

How about we allow adults to make adult choices and stop the wokiesta lefty paternalism? In 2025 everyone knows smoking isn’t the best thing for health. If they somehow didn’t get the memo in HS there is a warning on the package …if that doesn’t work there will be plenty of busybody Karens to let them know.

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