May 3, 2021

Prohibition is stupid, deadly, and is often racist.

The Food and Drug Administration said last week that it will propose a ban on menthol and all other flavored cigarettes within a year.

Here’s what Mitch Zeller, the head of FDA, had to say about the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes:

“The FDA cannot and will not enforce against individual consumer possession or use of menthol cigarettes, or any tobacco products,” Zeller said. “Our job will be to make sure that any unlawful tobacco products do not make their way onto the market.”

Does that sound familiar to anyone? It should sound that way to those who are aware of federal alcohol prohibition. The Volstead Act did not make drinking alcohol illegal. It only prohibited the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. But, if you had it, you could still drink it.

Zeller’s statement regarding menthol smokes is reminiscent of what military recruits used to hear in basic training: “Light ‘em if you got ‘em.”

But people won’t be able to get ‘em if the ban goes through.

Let’s take a brief look at prohibition over the years.

When alcohol was banned after the passage of the 18^th Amendment, people got poisoned alcohol, bathtub gin, and increased violence with the rise of corruption and organized crime. The federal government poisoned industrial alcohol because black marketeers were processing it for drinking. An estimated 10,000 people were killed after drinking the government-tainted booze.

And that increase in violence? That was the first era of drive-by shootings.

After the repeal of alcohol prohibition, non-alcoholic drugs became the target. The Bureau of Narcotics was established. Cannabis and heroin were the main substances prohibited. What did we get in the years that followed? We got paraquat, crack cocaine, meth labs, fentanyl, and an increase in violence.

For those who don’t know, paraquat is an herbicide with Toxicity Category 1 — the highest level. The U.S. government paid Mexico to spray the toxin on marijuana fields to eradicate the “evil weed.” But it didn’t always kill the plant. Smoking paraquat-tainted cannabis can lead to severe lung damage.

And the increased violence? The second era of drive-by shootings.

What will we get if menthol and other flavored tobacco products are banned? That’s speculative at this point, but history indicates there will be black market flavors, and who knows what chemicals will be used? Remember the vaping scare just a few years ago? (One of many scares.) It wasn’t the legal vaping solutions that were tainted, rather it was the black-market solutions causing the damage. Prohibitions always create black markets and there’s no quality control in the underground marketplace, at least not a peaceable means of control.

And there’s another similarity between these various prohibitions. It’s a matter of race and ethnicity. Irish and German immigrants were a focus of alcohol prohibitionists, and blacks, Mexicans, and Asians were the focus of cannabis, heroin, and opium prohibition. Black Americans reportedly make up most users of menthol cigarettes.

Alcohol prohibition didn’t end alcohol use. Other drug prohibition didn’t end pot or opioid use. Banning flavored tobacco won’t end that use, either.

Prohibition always creates a black market. What does anyone think will happen should firearms be banned?

Banning “things” doesn’t work. Bans should be restricted to certain actions. The initiation of force and fraud should be prohibited and perpetrators subject to criminal prosecution, but banning things is counterproductive. They lead to a more intrusive government and promote a more hostile attitude and interaction between police and the people. Eric Garner was killed in 2014 when a police officer strangled him during an arrest attempt because Garner was selling loose cigarettes. Maybe we should simply ban banning.

See:

History.com: https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-prohibition

Politico.com: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/29/fda-plan-menthol-cigarettes-ban-484999