Biden delays menthol cigarette ban after black leaders tell him it's racist

The Biden administration has delayed its ban on menthol cigarettes after strategists warned President Biden that it could negatively impact his support among black voters.

Leaders in the black community claim that the ban would foster an underground market and cause police to target black smokers in a disproportional manner, the Washington Post reports.

Since the black community has drastically dwindled its support for Biden over the past few years, the president's administration isn't taking any chances despite updated health guidance from the FDA and CDC.

According to data from the CDC, 81 percent of black smokers opt for menthol cigarettes.

Democrat civil rights leader Al Sharpton and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are among the critics of the ban. Sharpton asserts that it would form an underground market which would result in police disproportionately targeting black people. He said that the ban could create "another Eric Garner situation," referring to a black man who died in police custody in 2014 during a dispute about selling illegal smokes, according to the New York Post.

However, the outlet reports that it was later revealed that Al Sharpton's organization, National Action Network, has received major donations from R.J. Reynolds which owns the top-selling menthol cigarette brand in the nation, Newport.

In 2022, the FDA unveiled new regulations on menthol cigarettes, aiming to combat illness and fatalities caused by a product that was once targeted to African-American smokers.

The Biden administration was set to officially ban the product in August but pushed the date back to January 2024. The date has been delayed once again and is now set for March 2024, according to the Daily Mail.

Scientific research has led the CDC to issue advisories stating that "menthol in cigarettes increases the likelihood that youth and young adults will try smoking and that those who begin smoking will continue to smoke regularly."

"Menthol makes cigarettes more appealing and easier to smoke," according to the CDC. "In addition, menthol enhances the addictive effects of nicotine in the brain. The amount of nicotine, the addictive drug in tobacco products, in menthol cigarettes has increased in recent years."

According to the data cited, an estimated 10.1 million individuals began consuming menthol cigarettes between 1980 and 2018, which led to the premature deaths of 378,000 individuals. In total, the organization calculated three million years of "potential life lost" throughout the time period.