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Black Doctors Call on Obama to Ban Menthol Tobacco Products

  • September 15, 2016

The news cycle has been dominated by crusades for social justice during this contentious election year. Unfortunately, this has driven from the headlines an alarming specter, a nation that grows more obese and unhealthy by the day. This is about to change. A group of black doctors is confronting the tobacco industry about the unscrupulous tactics used to market menthol cigarettes to the African American community.

NBC was the first to report on this hot button issue. The FDA banned most flavored cigarettes over a decade ago but menthol cigarettes, preferred by over half of black smokers, are still in available. Big tobacco has much to answer and even more to lose. Not only is smoking the largest cause of preventable death for blacks but an astonishing "three-quarters of all black smokers ages 18 to 25 buy one specific brand — Newport menthols."

These passionate health crusaders should be commended. Purveyors of poison have been allowed to market their garbage and destroy lives with impunity. Death merchants have mastered the dark arts of marketing trash as treasure. They reap a harvest of profit and death. It is time we hold the manufacturers of cigarettes and junk food accountable for the damage they have wrought.