Racially Charged Atmosphere Could Spell End Of Menthol Cigarettes
The Washington Examiner cites Senior Fellow Michelle Minton on menthol cigarettes:
Michelle Minton, a senior fellow at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, thinks that rhetoric might win the day.
“Absolutely, it makes a ban more likely to happen,” Minton said. “It’s using the language of social justice. … There are some people who are cynically using this language in order to promote a political agenda.”
Minton disagrees that the advertising is necessarily why use of menthol cigarettes is higher among African Americans.
“It is fair to say that advertising of menthol cigarettes has been targeted to the black community,” Minton said. “Have blacks been manipulated into buying something harmful, or is it that blacks, for whatever reason, have a preference for menthol, and so advertising for menthol cigarettes has been targeted where it is most profitable?”