White acknowledged that there was opposition to the menthol ban but was unequivocal in her support for the proposed policy. “Despite the opposition from those that we expect to have an opposition and those that are unexpected,” she declared, “this is a big win for Black health.”

White attributes much of the opposition to the new policy to the tobacco industry, which she says has been “placing their poison in the hands of our youth.” She laments the government’s neglect in not banning menthol cigarettes years earlier, pointing to research conducted by the FDA that “concluded that if they removed menthol from the marketplace, it would significantly enhance public health, it would save many Black lives.”

“Let’s not be fooled,” White said of arguments about the criminal justice impacts of the menthol ban. She warned that the argument linking the ban to possible policing effects is “a smokescreen to take your thoughts off really the best piece of this, which is that we’re saving some of those 47,000 lives, Black lives that are lost to tobacco-related diseases.” This life-saving impact, White added, would be in addition to lowering premature births and infant mortality and decreasing the prevalence of “heart disease, diabetes, COPD, lung disease” and other chronic illnesses that arise from smoking.

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