Flavor cigarette ban curbs freedom, helps big tobacco keep selling

August 23, 2:09 PMLA Health and Beauty ExaminerSarah Torribio

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A new law bans flavored cigarettes.

I’m not usually one to go around bashing big government. I’m a bit too left-leaning for that.

I have to protest some recent government intervention, though: Once again, the U.S. government is attempting to mandate healthy habits, this time by banning flavored and clove cigarettes.

As of September 22, it won’t be illegal to possess flavored cigarettes, but it will be illegal to sell them. As a result, clove cigarettes, which have been imported from Indonesia and sold in the U.S. since 1968, and cigarettes flavors like cherry and chocolate mocha are about to become a controlled substance.

Ostensibly, this portion of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on June 22, will prevent yummy-sounding cigarette flavors like cherry and chocolate mocha from tempting young people into smoking.

In fact, this law—which passed handily in both houses of congress—will have little impact on teen smoking and a great deal of impact on adults’ freedom of choice (or perhaps I should say freedom of vice.)

Pay no attention to the cigarette company behind the curtain

The act, which was sponsored by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and championed by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)), benefited from an unusual ally.

Philip-Morris—the tobacco giant who controls fully half of the U.S. cigarette market share—had its tarry hands all over the passage of this legislation.

At first blush, it seems strange that the company would join forces with the likes of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids )—which champions itself as an organization “working to expose Big Tobacco’s lies”—to achieve what Obama calls “a victory for health care reform.”

A closer look, however, reveals that Philip-Morris has nothing to lose with this legislation and everything to gain.

First, a little background is in order. Here’s the law, in a nutshell:

For the first time in history, the legislation puts the Food and Drug Administration in charge of regulating cigarettes. The legislation includes a number of restrictions on how cigarettes can be labeled, packaged and promoted. It also restricts what kinds of ingredients can be used in the manufacture of cigarettes sold in the United States.

Again, the sales ban is supposed to keep kids from being lured into the world of nicotine addiction by fruit, candy and chocolate flavors.

Statistically, however, the flavor kids consider tastiest is straight-up tobacco, in the form of Marlboro brand cigarettes (produced by Philip Morris). Some 81 percent of established teen smokers consider Marlboro to be their ticket to flavor country, according to a February 12 article.

The next most popular flavor is mint, in the form of menthol cigarettes (Philip Morris produces a wide variety of menthol cigarettes, as well). A recent survey by the American Legacy Foundation turned up the following stats: Menthol cigarettes are preferred by 81 percent of black teens, 32 percent of white teens and 45 percent of Hispanic teens.

 In 2007, high school students were surveyed about their smoking habits. Twenty percent of teens surveyed said they had smoked in the last month, according to the American Lung Association website.

A relatively small number of these had smoked clove cigarettes (6.8 percent of the 20 percent who had smoked) and candy-flavored bidi cigarettes (1.7 percent).

So why is menthol expressly excluded in the legislation? Want the wording? Read the full act.  It stipulates that:

“. . . a cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke.”

Philip Morris’ reasons for this stipulation are as clear as the numbers. Menthol cigarettes, which add up to 28 percent of cigarettes purchased in the United States, are used by a significant number of teenagers and an even more significant number of minority youths.

Thus, clove cigarettes (which represent .09 percent of all cigarettes purchased in the United States), and flavor cigarettes (which have an even smaller market share) are a red herring.

By working to get clove and flavor cigarettes banned, Philip-Morris is trying to look like a philanthropic company that is dead-set against teen smoking. And yet, the company produces literally dozens of varieties of menthol cigarettes.

If they really cared, they’d want to see teen-friendly menthols pulled off the shelves along with products like Sweet Dreams’ Pink Vanilla cigarettes.

Instead, Philip Morris introduced yet another menthol cigarette, Marlboro Blend No. 54, in June.

The company hopes that the cigarette will compete with menthol competitors Newport and Camel Crush, produced by Lorillard Inc. and Reynolds American Inc., respectively, according to an article on Bloomberg.com.

The timing of the new addition (or should I say new addiction?), which hit shelves on June 17 and which the company is touting as “richer” and “bolder” is enough to make the company’s legislative motives suspect.

I believe that Philip Morris has no intention of stopping the profits reaped from teen smoking. Not only do teen smokers represent a significant market share; like Whitney Houston, cigarette companies know that “children are the future.” Teen smokers turn into grownup ones.

Supporting the law is really a subversive move on Philip Morris part, because it sweeps convenience store shelves clean of the small but significant competition offered by flavored cigarettes and cloves.

Culver City resident Jeff Bond smoked unfiltered clove cigarettes regularly for 10 years before quitting a few years ago. Bond, a legal secretary and musician, says he quit because he has two kids he wants to stay healthy for.

Though he has bid cloves adieu, he disagrees with the legislation, partially because he considers it fishy that a cigarette company was so heavily involved in its passage.

“Philip Morris gets to keep its product on market and others don’t. I just don’t like that. It sounds manipulative to me,” says Bond.

I called a couple of smoke shops to see if they were benefiting from a boom in the sales of the soon-to-be outlawed cigs, as aficionados attempt to stock up. The folks at both establishments were surprisingly unaware of the new law, which will affect their businesses soon. Apparently, September 1 will bring a rude awakening for some business owners and smokers.

Legislation is already being discussed that would restrict U.S. sales of these products via the Internet, by the way, so there may be no legal dodge available online. 

Perhaps speakeasies will make a return?

An unwelcome nanny

I had the dubious honor of breaking the news to Bunny Lua, of The Green House Smoke Shop in Venice. A customer mentioned the law to her two days ago  (August 22), but she figured that they must have their facts wrong.

Normally, when there are new laws that will have a sweeping impact on the sale of tobacco, she is notified by the companies in question. Sometimes she is asked to sign a petition or take some other action to show her opposition.

In this case, Lau heard nothing. She is still coming to grips with what the legislation means for her business and for personal freedom in general.

"I’d like to think I’m up-to-date [on legislation affecting the sale of tobacco,] but obviously I’m not,” she said. “It seems like it changes every minute.”

Lau emphasized that she never sells cigarettes of any kind to minors because she doesn’t want to “f—k with” the possibility of being fined or shut down.

“I have enough smokers in the neighborhood that I don’t need some 16-year-old’s five bucks,” she said. (Actually, cloves and flavor cigarettes run about $8 a pack, while regular cigarettes run about $7.)

In Lau’s mind, the heavy taxes on tobacco items are sign enough that the U.S. is becoming a nanny state, in which freedom is impinged upon in favor of supposed protection. The new law takes things even further.

“Think it is an infringement on people’s choice. More and more now we are being limited to what we can eat, where we buy our seeds from [etc.],” she said. “ . . . It upsets me that they make decisions for you, as if you can’t think for yourself.”

She also questions the inconsistencies implicit in tobacco legislation, such as the fact that cigarillos (small cigars that are often flavored) are neither set to be banned nor heavily taxed.

“It’s stupid,” Lau said. “They’re taxing you up the a--  on every cigarette, and yet cigars are somehow not part of the tobacco tax. There’s some heavy lobbying going on somewhere.”

*Los Angeles Health and Beauty Examiner Sarah Torribio smokes clove cigarettes once in a blue moon, though she knows they are bad for her. Apparently, her bad habit will be kicked for her in a few weeks.