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.”
This is hypocrisy. Let people smoke whatever they want. We’re not living in the fifties, everybody and their mother knows nicotine kills.
What they don’t get is that not everybody has a wonderful life and wants to live forever.
There are bans in place for kids, and adults should have the right to decide what they want. Ban flavoured alcohol too then.
You know, I don’t really care what you smoke, but I care that it’s communal. Somebody drinking wine, beer, a white claw, etc a few feet away doesn’t immediately negatively impact my existence by depriving me of clean air … or cause a friend with breathing issues a panic attack.
Plenty of adults “decide” to smoke for kids by smoking with the kids around.
Plenty of adults “decide” to smoke in the entrances of buildings, on busy sidewalks, in an outdoor mall, etc.
Plenty of adults have “decided” to smoke because it’s “safe” per some anecdote that they heard about a family member that smoked 3 packs a day and lived to be 90.
It’s actually all pretty freaking infuriating. One of the best things that’s ever been done is banning smoking inside of most buildings.
At the very least the age should be raised to match alcohol.
Sorry but it’s a witch hunt at this point. And don’t get me started about drunk people wanting to grope me every time I go out.
Where I live, every workplace has a designated area where you can smoke. Indoor smoking is forbidden.
The drinking age here is 16, so is buying tobacco. There really aren’t that many smokers anymore. Most kids vape or smoke pot.
Also if your friend has asthma, I don’t know, stay away from smoking people you see? It can’t be that hard.
Also, I started smoking because I was bored. Now I keep smoking because I want to. I’ve actively stopped kids in my family from starting with it, so I’m not trying to say smoking is ok. Just leave us be.
We see fewer and fewer of the adults you mention with each passing day.
I recall as a child seeing adults smoking all the time. Now it’s a rare occurrence.
At the very least the age should be raised to match alcohol.
Jesus fucking christ, you people…
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/style/smoking-cigarettes-comeback.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
Yet, in 2020, for the first time in two decades, cigarette sales increased.
That’s not just an unsubstantiated “feeling.”
At the very least the age should be raised to match alcohol.
Jesus fucking christ, you people…
“You people” as if you know me.
In any case, the whole point of alcohol being 21 is that by 21 A) you’re not talking to that many people who are still in high school/not yet 18 and B) you should be making better decisions.
Which has a net effect of lowering the amount of people that engage in these behaviors, because it doesn’t spread as much in high schools.
Now, maybe that doesn’t work as well as “we” (society) thinks, but if we still think it’s a good idea for alcohol it absolutely should apply to cigarettes and vapes. Vaping was supposed to help people stop smoking, not create a whole new problem.
If you’re smoking cigarettes, and you’re proud or happy with that decision as an adult, you are an outlier among outliers. I can’t say I’ve ever met someone that smokes cigarettes that hasn’t tried to completely quit at least once (with the exception of the guy who believes “they’re completely safe” despite all the information to the contrary).
This isn’t alcohol where the majority is split between people that happily consume alcohol in small quantities vs a subset of alcoholics. This is a thing where it’s universally harmful to the smoker, to the people around them, to the environment (cigarette butts), etc. It’s also much more addictive than alcohol and marijuana where people need smoke breaks. It’s just a regrettable mess from when society didn’t know better.
In some places it has been raised to match alcohol. NY is an example of that: https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/tobacco_control/current_policies.htm#:~:text=Article 13-F Section 1399-CC of the NYS Public,under the age of 21.
At the very least the age should be raised to match alcohol.
FYI it has been, on a Federal level (in the US), since 2019. Donald Trump of all people on Earth signed that into law. The legal age to buy cigarettes and to buy alcohol in the US is the same, 21.
Sure I’m fine with both bans, alcohol not only kills yourself but many others too. The only reason it’s not illegal is because it’s ingrained in society.
The only reason it’s not illegal is because it’s ingrained in society.
What about the history we learned from when it was illegal?
You… did learn from history, right?
Could you clarify your point? You think flavored cigarettes are just as ingrained as alcohol?
It’s like people in this thread don’t realize how massively addictive nicotine is? I see addicts all the time try to excuse their addictions with every excuse in the book. I was addicted once. It took every part of my soul to quit that shit. nicotine is a mistake many make and don’t come back from and pretend it their choice shit should be band. Just due to it’s addictive nature. Banned for the same reason lotterys are generat only owned by the state. Shits is a a great investment. People will kill themselves or others to give you money
It’s like people in this thread don’t realize how massively addictive caffeine is? I see addicts all the time try to excuse their addictions with every excuse in the book. I was addicted once. It took every part of my soul to quit that shit. caffeine is a mistake many make and don’t come back from and pretend it their choice shit should be band. Just did to it’s addictive nature. Banned for the same reason lotterys are generat only owned by the state. Shits is a a great investment. People will kill themselves or others to give you money
(edit /s proud nicotine addict here)
Caffine is not nearly as addictive as nicotine. And to conflate the too is a fat ass lie. I’ve quit both caffeine was three days of headaches at most. Quiting nicotine was my skin crawling and wanting to yank out my teeth for months. It’s been more then two years and I still crave it. They are not the same you are exactly the type of nicotine addict I talk about. They are absolutely not the same
Yeah, so why would they ban flavors and not nicotine? It seems that would be the play if they wanted to stop smoking (and start some riots).
Oh and I don’t think they should give up legal things they do anyway. The issue is they don’t do the thing that could address this because it is not a good idea and punishes people, but then in the same breath turn around and do the thing that will NOT address the issue AND is also a bad idea that punishes people (Just not their people).
I don’t smoke but isn’t flavored vape essentially the same and that is legal?
is it?
you have to invest quite a bit more than the $6 that a pack of menthol cigarettes is going to cost into a vaporizer setup.
vaporizers also dont use tobacco, but nicotine, and have varying levels of nicotine - some formulations have no nicotine. there’s also no tar or the 400+ chemicals involved with burning tobacco.
Disposable vapes should be illegal for sure. Everywhere. Like it’s not fucking hard to change a coil. It’s not hard to even wrap a coil and change a cotton wick. Disposables are the shittiest laziest things and create insane amounts of waste, like you said.
Quick edit: make your own juice, wrap your own coils, and vaping is basically free from then on.
$6 that a pack of menthol cigarettes
Not sure where you are, but a pack is almost $25 here.
Lots of places are banning those too.
Which is really stupid, because they’re also banning the zero-nicotine ones that aren’t harmful and aren’t addictive (though may be habit-forming in the same way as snacking or drinking any beverage). Also they’re useful to people trying to quit smoking because even the ones with nicotine are far less harmful than smoking.
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.
Is it really, though?
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:
Tobacco companies offered grants to HBCUs, sponsored hip-hop and jazz music festivals, and supported civil rights institutions including the NAACP. In the 1980s, industry-sponsored vans distributed free cigarette samples in the streets of Houston’s Black neighborhoods. The program would later expand to 50 cities.
“A total of 1.9M samples will be distributed to targeted smokers in 1983,” industry officials wrote in a Kool Market Development Program document. “Sample distribution will be targeted to: housing projects, clubs, community organizations and events where Kool’s Black young adult target congregate.”
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.
Alcohol causes more problems in society than tobacco.
