Will The FDA Ban Menthol Cigarettes (and Vapes)?

It shouldn’t be any surprise that the FDA continues to make moves to control, regulate and even ban tobacco and vaping products, but menthol has been on their radar for quite some time, and it looks like it’s finally coming to a head. Flavored cigarettes have been banned for many years already, except for menthol, which is still widely popular among smokers today and has been since the 1950s.

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While most FDA news has been primarily focused on vaping in previous years, this is the first time in quite a while that organization has proposed an initiative that would significantly affect big tobacco companies, which, in most cases, seem to have the FDA in their back pocket. Interestingly enough, there hasn’t been a single mention about banning menthol in vaping products thus far, but that doesn’t mean it won’t eventually happen, as most of us who have followed tobacco/vaping news for the past decade know.

According to the FDA and other notable tobacco/vape news sources, the main issue with menthol-flavored cigarettes is that they have typically been “marketed towards black, LGBTQ, and low-income communities, all known to have limited health care access on average.” The problem with banning menthol-flavored cigarettes (or vapes) is that it won’t make smokers or vapers quit. In fact, the potential for black market menthol additives, cigarettes, and vaping products would like to surge in popularity which is certainly not a safe, viable option for public health, which is supposedly what the FDA’s mission is. Rather than banning methol, perhaps the FDA should look at countless additives that tobacco companies put into their cigarettes instead of taking away choices for smokers and vapers. That isn’t going to happen because it makes too much sense for an agency with a definite plan that is likely in sync with big tobacco companies with lobbyists influencing legislation and the FDA’s overall direction. If you think about it, big tobacco companies have lost thousands of smokers to vaping over the past decade, which explains why they suddenly launched their own vaping brands (Vuse, JUUL, NJoy) to compete in a market they are way behind in. If you think this is all conspiracy theory and paranoid speculation, look at which vapes have been approved to market recently by the FDA (hint, we just listed them in the previous sentence.) The fact is that the proposed menthol ban, along with the circus process of how flavored vape products are being denied to market, will most definitely drive smokers to either a) continue smoking non-methol cigarettes or b) choose sub-par vaping products that the big tobacco companies have gotten the FDA to approve to market. Either way, the consumer is denied choice and an alternative to their inferior products.

At Smokers Heaven, we will continue to monitor the FDA and their recent moves against vaping and now menthol cigarettes. We’ll be sure to post any updates as we see them happen.