We’ve all seen the Truth ads when it comes to anti-cigarette messages, but a few black activists are taking matters into their own hands for their very own community. A panel of five activists called for the city to ban menthol cigarettes from its convenience stores at a public hearing hosting by the St. Paul City Council Progressive Baptist Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The St. Paul chapter of the NAACP, the Aurora-St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation and the Association for Nonsmokers-MN were all represented at the hearing.

According to Clearway MN, 88 percent of black smokers smoke menthols, and activists have accused the tobacco industry for targeting black Americans.

“A lot of people started before they turned 18,” said Traielle Godfrey via Pioneer Press. “I had a lot of friends who started at 12 and 13, and it’s sad to say that most of my friends who do smoke are African-American. … They started (at ages) when their minds were a little more vulnerable.”

“I’m sitting here and I was trying not to get choked up, because I’m sure each and every one of us here has a person they’ve lost due to tobacco smoking,” said Rev. Patricia Lewis, who lost her husband to lung cancer. “Mine was my husband, who started smoking at age 12. … He started at two packs a day, and he increased to five packs a day.”

Retailers and tobacco industry lobbyists are critical of the ban, calling it a “government overreach” that will make small businesses suffer. “You’re talking about profit and loss, and we’re talking about lives,” said St. Paul NAACP chapter vice president Ed Owens, who referred tobacco as a “poison.”

“We have Russian roulette being played with our youth, and with our community. And that has to stop,” Owens added.

The council is expected to vote on the decision on Wednesday.