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this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Like every time this comes up, this is straight up racism.
If they actually cared about protecting children, they'd put quality control restrictions on the fluids used in vape pens to prevent popcorn lung and the like BECAUSE KIDS DON'T REALLY SMOKE CIGARETTES ANYMORE.
You know who disproportionately smokes menthols and flavored cigarellos?
Black people.
If they actually had something against smoking, they'd ban ALL CIGARETTES.
If they were actually trying to protect kids, they'd go after what kids are using.
They're going after the smoke of choice for large portions of the black community.
What does that tell you?
Is it really, though? My country banned menthols ages ago, because it made cigarettes less nasty and thus easier to get into. Makes sense to me. We don’t have the amount of segregation here like in the US. At least not racially-based. Not saying there isn’t any, but it’s definitely not on the same level.
Unfortunately, historically speaking, in the U.S. it both is and has been.
It is virtually impossible to get into any discussion involving menthol cigarettes in america without also getting into a discussion about the black community they were specifically marketed towards.
Literally:
An R.J. Reynolds executive actually said: "We don’t smoke that s—t. We just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the Black and stupid."
The reason a targeted menthol/flavored ban is problematic is that since something like 85% of black smokers choose menthols...
...that means this ban gives police ANOTHER free ticket to harass just about any black man, woman, or child/teen they see smoking. They'd likely get away with calling it "probable cause" which is twelve kinds of fucked up.
If they cared about public health they would do one of two things:
1: Ban all cigarettes
2: Use awareness campaigns (THESE ARE PROVEN TO WORK, LOOK AT THE DECLINE OF THE YOUTH SMOKING RATE)
Given the other viable options it is really, really hard to see this as anything other than a racially targeted decision.
Yikes. Today I learnt, unfortunately…