WALL STREET MAKES THE RULES –

Nov. 6, 2022 – In Reynolds’s filing against the menthol ban, it wrote that, broadly, it “fully supports F.D.A.’s goal of reducing tobacco-related disease.” But, it contended, “menthol smokers would simply switch to nonmenthol cigarettes or turn to riskier options such as illicit market cigarettes.” The company declined further comment beyond its filing.

As the smoking population in the United States has fallen to 13 percent from 21 percent in 2005, far from a peak of about 45 percent of adults in 1954, and public opinion has turned against cigarettes, the legal and political might of Big Tobacco has shrunk, too. A Gallup survey conducted in July found that 74 percent of Americans favored “requiring tobacco companies to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes to make them less addictive.” About 42 percent favored banning menthol-flavored cigarettes. (Under the current proposal, menthol e-cigarettes could be sold.)

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