Smoke If You Got 'Em: Hochul's Proposed Cigarette Ban Angers Black New Yorkers

Solidifying New York’s leadership in ensuring a tobacco-free generation, Governor Hochul will introduce legislation to expand upon the State’s ban on the sale of flavored vaping products by prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco products. In addition, Governor Hochul will propose to increase the cigarette tax from $4.35 to $5.35 per pack. These actions are projected to reduce the number of young people smoking cigarettes by nine percent, prevent 22,000 youths from becoming adult smokers,70 and prevent premature deaths caused by smoking.

The term “flavored tobacco products” includes menthol cigarettes. Black activists in the Empire State have taken note that, while Hochul is fine with legalizing marijuana, she wants to show flavored cigarettes the door.

Like I said, only in a blue state.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Corey Pegues, a retired black New York Police Department executive, is asking lawmakers to push back on the proposal. Pegues said, “You’re telling me that my 21-year-old son can buy all the cannabis he wants, but my grandmother who’s been smoking for 65 years can’t get a cigarette? It doesn’t make sense.”

Pegues told the Free Beacon, “Hochul didn’t run on this. She would have been defeated. Black people wouldn’t have voted for her. Whoever passes this ban is going to be the boogeyman. Think about this. You are going to be the person that took Newport cigarettes from black people. You would never get reelected again, I promise you.”

Wayne Harris, chairman of the board of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, said that Hochul’s proposal specifically targets people of color. The Free Beacon notes that 80% of black New York smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, as opposed to 30% of white smokers. Harris observed that Hochul’s ban would largely not affect cigarettes favored by whites.

Harris also commented that, while Hochul’s administration claims it would prevent youth smoking, the rates of young people smoking have declined in the past decades. He added, “Our youth are much more likely to be smoking marijuana than they are to be smoking cigarettes.” Jiles Ship, a former president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said that if black New Yorkers can’t get menthol cigarettes, they will smuggle them in from neighboring states and sell them on the black market.

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The Free Beacon cites a source inside Hochul’s office who says the idea for the ban was crafted by policy director Micha Lasher. Lasher has been linked to Michael Bloomberg. Since 2005, his charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies, has handed out $1.58 billion to fund anti-tobacco efforts. Ah, we knew money would show up at some point, right?

It all makes perfect sense. Democrats have never divested themselves of the notion that they know what is best for black people. What you see here is the nanny state making decisions for a group of people for their own good. In a moment of stunning irony, the group that is pro-choice is telling black people in New York that they cannot make choices about their bodies. And, of course, they believe that black people will naturally fall in line since it is a given that they will vote Democrat.

I’m not advocating smoking, but the issue is that New York is telling these people how to live their lives. That’s what is at the bottom of this. And since cigarettes are known to be phenomenally bad for one’s health, who is going to stand up to that? Quitting smoking is a good thing, but forcing people to bend to your will has always been bad. At its essence, this is not about health; it’s about power.

So if Hochul has her way, if a black person in New York wants an abortion, fine. If they want to smoke weed, fine. But if they want a menthol cigarette? No way. Don’t you know those things will kill you?