Black public health officials and lawmakers are losing confidence that President Joe Biden will ban menthol cigarettes, a major killer in Black communities.
The Biden administration has already pushed back several self-imposed deadlines to enact a ban on menthol products, like Newport and Kool cigarettes, which was formally proposed by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022.
“They said August 2023, then the end of 2023, and now we’re being told March of 2024,” Phillip Gardiner, co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC), said. “I hold no hopes out for that at all.”