Why Banning Menthol Cigarettes Could Do More Harm Than Good

Forbes

Steve Forbes explains how lessons from prohibition show that banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars could do more harm than good.

Transcript

00:00 The U.S. is about to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

00:04 As usual, such prohibitions will have the unintended consequence of doing more harm

00:09 than good.

00:10 Hello, I'm Steve Forbes and this is What's Ahead, where you get the insights you need

00:17 to better navigate these turbulent times.

00:21 Experience shows time and time again that forcibly curtailing popular products backfires,

00:27 leading to illicit use and lawbreaking.

00:30 Our baleful bout with prohibition a century ago, whereby the manufacturing and sale of

00:35 liquor were made illegal, should forever serve as a precaution for busybody bureaucrats,

00:41 politicians and meddling pressure groups of the folly of compulsion rather than education

00:47 in changing people's use of certain items and services.

00:51 But no, the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, is sending proposed regulations to

00:57 the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review.

01:02 They could take effect possibly by the end of this year.

01:05 These rules would prohibit menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

01:10 Proponents claim these edicts will save hundreds of thousands of lives.

01:14 They will not.

01:15 As happened during prohibition, they'll gin up black market activity and smuggling.

01:21 Like the backcountry stills churning out whiskey during prohibition, illegal production of

01:25 menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars will crop up.

01:29 These prohibited products will also be smuggled in from other countries, especially Mexico.

01:35 Advocates say these new regulations are necessary to save our vulnerable youth from taking up

01:41 these bad-for-your-health habits.

01:43 Anyone who knows anything about teenagers in particular and human nature in general

01:49 will know that argument is nonsense.

01:51 Compulsion usually backfires.

01:54 Education is the key.

01:56 And all the warnings about ingesting smoke into one's lungs have been having an impact.

02:02 The data back this up.

02:04 Smoking among young people has been plummeting.

02:07 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, found that the level of smoking among

02:13 high schoolers is at an historic low.

02:16 Cigar smoking is down by more than a third.

02:20 And vaping by young people, which supposedly is a scourge, is at a decade low of 10 percent.

02:26 Banning menthol smokes among adults using them won't work well either.

02:31 Poland, where menthol cigarette use is high, outlawed them.

02:35 Result?

02:36 No drop in overall cigarette use.

02:39 Massachusetts enacted a ban on all flavored tobacco products.

02:43 People bought them from neighboring states.

02:46 Which underlines what will be a real smuggling problem that will arise with what the FDA

02:51 is about to do.

02:53 The move will further enrich the powerful Mexican drug cartels, which have been feasting

02:59 on bringing in illegal immigrants thanks to President Biden's unofficial open border policy.

03:06 The FDA ban will also devastate makers of flavored cigars.

03:10 Not that government bureaucrats would care.

03:12 Remember, most users don't inhale cigar smoke.

03:16 They're hardly a threat to public health, as are cigarettes.

03:20 The FDA should, but won't, back off.

03:23 Law enforcement will be left to deal with the resulting mess.

03:27 I'm Steve Forbes.

03:28 Thanks for listening.

03:29 Do send in your comments and suggestions.

03:32 I look forward to being with you soon again.

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