Boston convenience store owners say menthol cigarette ban has led to crime, lower sales

submitted by rainbow80 from (masslive.com)

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[–]Chipit 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

They tried banning flavored cigarettes a number of years back. Said they got children to smoke. Got promptly BTFO'd by the "that's waycist" crowd because blacks like menthols.

[–]Questionable 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Every aspect of the flavored cigarette ban had me rolling my eyes. Especially the menthol exception.

And now with the ban on Vaping right before covid... In which one of the key ingredients in nicotine for vaping is an antiseptic used in hospital settings.

https://www.churnmag.com/news/1942-study-uncovers-incredible-health-benefits-of-inhaled-propylene-glycol/

Seemed odd in the early days, and now it's making all too much sense.

[–]hennaojichan 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Hey, people need their Newports and Kools. So it's true that menthol smokes make you sterile? s/ But why do they care?

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

It's trivial to make cigarettes menthol. You just need to dissolve menthol crystals in alcohol and treat the filter. A syringe works nicely so the menthol doesn't actually touch your lips directly.

Works with flavoring too, except you use vape juice flavor.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

  1. If you ban something you'll obviously sell less of it. That's the whole point. And banning a popular product will decrease the sale of other items, because it decreases the exposure people have to manipulative marketing present in convenience stores.

  2. If you ban something you'll obviously increase crime statistics because people are now being charged for it. Doesn't mean they're doing it more. It may look like they're doing it more, but that's because people are paying attention now.

These are the same arguments drug dealers use against banning meth, cocaine, heroin, and all the other illegal drugs. In reality, if they where legalized people would use them more because there's less risk for the same reward. It doesn't matter that you can regulate it because 1. people will still sell it illegally and 2. people will now be using the 'safer' product more, thus scaling up to more harm than the 'dangerous' product did before.

It's like banning murder, and then complaining that there's less murder, but also that people are being arrested for murder.