The White House is scrapping a long-awaited ban on menthol cigarettes to avoid angering black voters months before the 2024 election.
After dragging the process out for months, the administration is expected to announce the reversal on Friday, sources disclosed to the Wall Street Journal.
Experts previously told DailyMail.com that the ban would alienate black voters who have been drifting away from the president in polling and also surge crime nationwide.
A recent poll indicated that black Americans are not feeling very enthusiastic about Biden, and 40 percent don’t plan to vote in the 2024 election.
The administration killing its proposed menthol ban may be an appeal to Biden’s supporters to stay on the bandwagon a little over six months until election day.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Xavier Becerra said the proposed ban garnered ‘historic attention’ and therefore it’s ‘clear there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.’
Menthol cigarettes account for nearly one-third of the industry’s market share in the U.S., and are incredibly popular with smokers.
Experts previously told DailyMail.com that the ban would alienate the black vote against President Biden and surge crime nationwide
In 2022 the FDA announced it was working to create new standards for tobacco products that would ban the use of menthol flavoring. Nearly two years later, the ban is still not enacted and special interest groups for and against the ban have been pressuring the White House to get the job done
Protestors marched on Black Lives Matter Plaza in January advocating for a menthol ban
They have also long been particularly popular with black smokers, with 81 percent of them opting for the menthol varieties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The minty flavoring that is added to these products typically appeals to young, first-time smokers, making them dangerous in the eyes of the White House, medical associations and civil rights groups.
According to findings from a survey by Nuestro PAC, black and Latino voters were also worried that the proposed ban would ‘push the product into the illegal black market’ and increase crime.
Eighty percent of black and Latinos said they agreed that the government should ‘fully explore concerns’ before moving forward with the ban.
Those findings align with a recent push by Rev. Al Sharpton urging administration to walk back its proposed ban.
The Biden administration had maintained that the criminalization of menthols would help Americans become less addicted over time.
‘The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,’ HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra previously said.
‘Additionally, the proposed rules represent an important step to advance health equity by significantly reducing tobacco-related health disparities,’ he continued.
‘The FDA remains committed to issuing the tobacco product standards for menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars as expeditiously as possible; these rules have been submitted to OMB for review, which is the final step in the rulemaking process,’ an FDA spokesman told DailyMail.com in a statement.
‘As we’ve made clear, these product standards remain at the top of our priorities.’
‘Regulations such as product standards go through an extensive rulemaking process, which includes interagency review. At this stage in rulemaking, the FDA is limited from further discussions about the rules before they are published.’
Still, many advocating for the ban claim that outlawing the flavored products will cut usage and therefore save lives.
California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta led a 21-state letter to the White House in January stating that the time to act is ‘now.’
A group of activists against menthol held a funeral for flavored tobacco outside the White House earlier this year.
The protestors hauled out a massive fake menthol cigarette pack and marched it down the street in fake funeral parade one block from the White House.
‘Ban Menthol Save Black Lives’ the signs at the event read.
‘Today we are joining advocates for a Menthol Funeral demanding that the [White House] issue final rules to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars,’ said one participant on X.
Two years after announcing intentions to ban menthol, the FDA and the White House have not set new standards for using the substance in tobacco products
Banning menthol is not uncommon, the additive is currently banned in Canada since 2017 and has been banned in the European Union since 2020.
It is also banned in California and Massachusetts, along with a multitude of locally counties nationwide.
‘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.’
