They've already banned menthol in California and it did nothing. Alternatives are already being marketed and sold and some of the better ones recreate the exact same effect but cost $1.20 more per pack at the low end. To put it simply, this is dumb as fuck.
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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The point is to make cigarettes as expensive and unappealing as possible.
That's not in anyone's own interests. Smokers have to pay more, tobacco industry gets more money. Literally a lose-lose. Dumb. As. Fuck.
That's not how capitalism works. If the tobacco industry could raise prices and get more money today, they would. Since they haven't, you have to assume that any increased taxes or burden on them will reduce their profits.
Yes, it might increase prices to the end consumer, because the demand curve will change when the costs change. But that doesn't mean the tobacco industry is making any more money. If it did, they would already charge more.
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Don't ban them, tax them.
This way smokers have to pay more so the demand will decrease, tobacco industry gets less money, and the economic burden on public health and environment can be financed with the additional tax income.
Addicts will always find a way to justify their addiction. Price of smokes goes up? Welp, looks like Ol Johnny Blacklungs is going to buy less food this month.
So we shouldn't tax cigarettes then? It sounds like you've identified that addiction can quickly become a public health crisis if wealth inequality could cause addicts to choose their vice over food. We could fund programs to help addicts get help, but we would need to raise tax revenue.
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Already banned where I live.
They now sell cigarettes with hollow filters in which a separately sold tiny filter fits, which is infused with menthol.
"According to the American Lung Association, the use of menthol cigarettes is highest among Black, brown and LGBTQ+ communities. Medical groups like the American Lung Association have long advocated for menthol cigarettes to be banned because they can make it easier to start smoking and disproportionately affect minority communities."
Gonna save the minorities from the opression of racism and homophobia by specifically targeting them with a ban.
I've never really understood references to "the left eating itself" until I hit that paragraph. The absolute irony of the anti racist/homophobe sentiment being so overtly racist/homophobic kinda made the light bulb come on.
This adverse thing is adverse, so in order to reduce adversity among minorities, we'll target the specific option they tend towards... to reduce discrimination against them, by discriminating their specific choice. Discriminating against them... to reduce discrimination...
And then you publish that shit? That's kinda fucked IMHO.
Huh I mean I get what you're saying but can't we just take this potential win? I'm a cancer survivor and it just seems weird to complain about legislation that will reduce cancer. Menthol cigarettes just make it easier to get cancer than plain ones. That's how I see this. Just because minorities and lgbtq are more likely to use them doesn't mean it's racist.
Nah, this ban accomplishes absolutely nothing except producing more expensive alternatives that do the exact same thing.
I'm glad you survived your battle, but this ban would only serve to disproportionately affect the poor.
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How do menthols make it easier to get cancer than regular smokes? Genuinely asking btw
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Menthol cigarettes just make it easier to get cancer than plain ones.
Were you a smoker, and did you ever smoke menthols? Menthols give a bit different feeling, but I wouldn't say it's that much "easier" to smoke.
The EU did the same thing to ban menthols a couple years ago, and yet I can still go to the store and buy cigarettes with menthol taste. These new fake-menthols surprisingly feel even smoother to smoke than classic menthols, but it's still not a big difference compared to unflavored cigarettes IMO.
It's my body; I get to decide what goes in it. Poison or not. This isn't a win at all.
I just wish it was banned in public because I choose to not put poison in my body, yet I have to inhale everyone else's poison that they are ingesting near me. In public and in cars is where I wish it was banned. There's nothing worse than being stuck behind someone in traffic that is smoking and you have nowhere to go and nothing to do except inhale that shit.
I got bad news for you... cigarette smoke is the least of your worries when stuck in traffic. You're inhaling exhauste fumes from every car near you...
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I have to say, pot is getting like that too. While I support that it’s now decriminalized (where I live), now it’s becoming a nuisance. I shouldn’t have to breathe second hand smoke regardless of what you’re smoking
Also my opinion, and the outcome of prohibition would suggest that society at large generally believes this as well.
...with an obvious exception for minorities...
Which was my point. Apparently the politics of it, and decades of anti tobacco propaganda (and I dont intend the normally negative connotation the word has, it just is what it is) have made this acceptable somehow... for an obviously racial/homophobic exception to just be openly declared and apparently acceptable... it's kinda weird to me.
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So I totally forgot about this but, they banned them in Illinois and they just... They're still there, no one around me has stopped selling them
Sue Dillion needs to make some calls
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