Eighty national public health groups, including the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Preventative Medicine, placed a full-page ad in Sunday’s edition of the Washington Post in support of a federal ban on menthol in cigarettes and all flavored cigars.
“The answer is clear,” the full-page ad says. “Saving lives starts by ending the sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars.
“Smoking kills nearly half a million people in the United States each year, and these addictive, deadly products are a big part of the problem. The FDA and White House have our full support to release lifesaving rules prohibiting menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars.”
Urgh, when they banned them in my country it was with this same stupid logic.
Now I don’t smoke (quit 15ish years ago) but this idea that anything flavoured somehow MUST be for the purpose of marketing towards children is insane. It manages to be wrong in two opposite ways:
One: This implies that anything with flavor is not for adults and everyone over the age of majority goes home to enjoy our grey flavourless mush.
Two: This implies that the flavors involved must be what appeals most to children. You know those menthol and whisky tipped smokes that all the children go nuts for.
This logic falls apart (both ways) when you look at any other legal market like booze, weed or vape.
It is almost as if after the US lost the war on drugs they want to try again on a smaller scale.
The flavour makes it so more people start. So it is good to ban it.
Does it? I have not been convinced. Also by that logic why should other not healthy things be flavoured? Why can you buy flavoured malt liquor, weed gummies, vapes or edible panties? With this same logic junk food should taste like sadness and regret for the future health of the children (won’t someone think of the children).
How this does not come off as ludicrous to anyone makes me question my own sanity. If smoking was such an issue and potential future addiction had to be stopped, banning the nicotine (you know the addictive) makes more sense then allowing the sale of the same addictive product as long as it does not taste minty.
Okay, hear me out here. We should ban smoking meat next. Just the stuff that has been marinated or seasoned. You know, for the kids.
When are we going to start banning flavored alcohol like White Claw and Mike’s while we’re at it
Please don’t joke this into existence
It worked out so well the last time we tried.
Menthol and other flavoured cigarettes were banned in the EU years ago, and I don’t recall much of a fuss, not sure why this would be an issue in the US.
My experience was that long time smokers weren’t the ones smoking menthol and other weird stuff, it was mostly kids that didn’t like tobacco.
I have maybe a cigar a month. Sometimes, a nice dipped cigar is enjoyable. It’d be a shame to just outright ban them.
Tobacco is fucking horrible, but Menthol and other flavorings make it so much worse. They increase the likelihood of addiction massively.
And is always the case in public health, you don’t put in rules to cater to the edge cases, you put in rules to protect the majority affected.
Tell me you’re not a smoker without telling me you’re not a smoker.
You clearly have no idea how tobacco addiction works.
Prohibition doesn’t work. Mind your own fucking business.
I can tell that you’re addicted just by the vitriol in your response here.
Did you start of menthols and other flavored tobacco? Because that’s how a lot of people start. Which is why people are pushing for a ban, so others won’t be as hopelessly addicted as you are.
Fuck you.
It’s my choice.
Mind your own fucking business you fucking asshole.
Here, childhood obesity is a MUCH larger issue than smoking.
Go ban all the artificial flavorings that are in all of the different bowls of sugar, ahem, breakfast cereals, that are shamefully aimed at children in an effort to give them diabetes, just leave the aisle full of plain rasin bran.
Do that and I’ll believe it’s about health and the kids and not simply a power trip controlling another person’s choices.
A lifetime of doctors visits, insulin vials, insulin pumps, blood sugar meters, etc are bleeding this country FAR more than 80 year olds with lung cancer (that probably wasnt even caused by the tobacco).
In places where healthcare is vaguely civilized, your unhealthy addiction becomes my business because it comes with negative social externalities in the form of additional cost and strain on a public health service.
Edit: Spelling
Doesn’t sound very civilized at all.
Sounds judgy, controlling, biased, and miserable.
