On The Tragic Anniversary Of Eric Garner’s Murder, We Should Honor Him By Opposing The Menthol Ban

Ten years ago today, Eric Garner was detained on a Staten Island street, forced to the ground face down and put into a chokehold by former NYPD officer Daniel Pantelo. While he was still conscious, Mr. Garner begged for his life with the words that would fuel mass protests and a movement: I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe…

An hour after an ambulance finally arrived and took him to the hospital, Mr. Garner was declared dead. But it’s not unreasonable to believe, given what the recording of the incident showed and the lack of care provided by the paramedics who only seemed to take his pulse at the scene, that Mr. Garner was gone before the ambulance arrived. The ME ruled his death a homicide. 

NYPD’s PR teams tried to spin the story of the murder of this unarmed, non antagonistic Black man. He was, according to unproven reports, selling, illegally, untaxed loose cigarettes. It was a bizarre defense: if–and that’s a big if–he was doing that, was the penalty death? They touted the other findings from the ME, that Mr. Garner was obese and had asthma. 

But neither of these conditions killed him on July 17th, 2014. Mr. Garner was dead on that summer afternoon for one reason and one reason only: Panteleo’s chokehold, an act that was justified by the NYPD and others in law enforcement Mr. Garner was illegally selling cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes.

Why, after what happened to Eric Garner, a ban on menthols being proposed? Because of poor reasoning.

Biden’s current proposed ban on the manufacturing and sale of menthol cigarettes was first floated while Obama was president. But the Biden Administration has made it their business—with the NAACP’s support—to ban them. It’s a move opposed by people who think clearly and speak honestly, including the Eric Garner’s mother. 

Back in school, do you remember learning about faulty reasoning? It’s when, for example, you accidentally break a mirror in your home and then later, while walking down the street, you trip and fall and have to go to the hospital for a badly sprained ankle. Some would conclude that you fell because of the earlier broken mirror. But that’s not proof. It’s not even reasonable. 

More reasonable would be to investigate other directly related variables to the fall. Were you texting or on your phone, not minding your step? Were you distracted by the sudden movement of a car that made you lose a step? Was there a deep crack in the sidewalk? Do you have existing balance-related issues? Were the shoes you were wearing a contributing factor? 

All of these, and more, questions need to be asked in order to find what caused the fall, rather than jumping to a superstitious conclusion.

The same is true for the reasoning that drives the menthol ban.

Feelings are not facts and facts require proof

We can all agree on some areas: 

1. Menthol or non menthol, all cigarettes pose significant health risks
2. Likely no parent or caring adult wants to see their child become addicted to any kind of cigarettes
3. Black parents and caregivers like other parents and caregivers, want to see their children grow up healthy and safe
4. Menthol cigarettes are predominantly used by Black people.
5. Menthol cigarettes are more aggressively marketed to Black people. 

But that’s pretty much all we can agree on because beyond those statements, the arguments veer into unscientific, unevidenced suppositions.

Thinking 101: check the facts before you report them as facts 

Ban supporters argue that:

Menthol cigarettes make it easier for young people (young Black people) to start smoking. 

FACT CHECK: Cigarette smoking has decreased sharply across all ages but according to analysis by the respected, nonpartisan research and policy shop, the Reason Foundation, “menthol smoking has declined to a point of being less popular than non-menthol smoking. If current trends continue, the total percentage of youth smoking menthol cigarettes will be at or near zero within the next few years.”

Menthol cigarettes are harder to quit because they taste better.

FACT CHECK:  A study of 85,806 people published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found menthol and nonmenthol smokers showed equal odds of quitting, and lung cancer incidence was, in fact, lower in menthol smokers. The report’s author, William J. Blot, Ph.D., said that “…there is not enough scientific evidence to justify a ban of menthol cigarettes in comparison with nonmenthol cigarettes.”

A ban on menthol would save Black lives.

FACT CHECK: Biden’s own Surgeon General’s Report—which supports the ban—buries in its own research that  there is no conclusive evidence demonstrating a ban would reduce menthol cigarette smoking. Bans have been pushed across the EU and in jurisdictions in Brazil, but there is no data demonstrating the saving of Black lives.

What the data actually tell us

There is research that isn’t loosey-goosey and can actually help save lives. First, the ban or prohibition of a a drug, in this case, nicotine, relies on failed drug war mentality that’s rooted in racism and punishment.

As my friend, mentor and neuroscientist, Dr. Carl Hart, one of the world’s leading experts on drugs and neuropsychopharmacology–as well as being the Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology (In Psychiatry) at Columbia and the award-winning author of High Price and Drug Use for Grownups—has often argued:

The impact of drugs on the body are predictable. If we know what drugs have been used, we can demonstrably predict the outcome. But what is not predictable are the actions of police and other law enforcement. 

Which brings us back to Eric Garner.

Selling cigarettes, if he was indeed selling them, did not kill him or anyone around him. The full blame goes to the cops who choked him to death and the cops who ignored Mr. Garner being choked. None were ever criminally tried, likely because not only was Mr. Garner Black, he was accused of selling untaxed cigarettes.

That ban set him up to be defined as a criminal. And despite the ruling that Mr. Garner’s death was a homicide, neither Pantelo nor any other officer was convicted of any criminal charges.

For all the effort that the Biden administration, the NAACP and others are putting into banning cigarettes, I’d like to remind them of a solution to further reduce the use of cigarettes, menthol and otherwise, that actually has proven to work remarkably well: public education.

If we’re actually interested in saving, not just punishing, Black people, there is a way forward

According to a Gallup Poll on the impact of public education campaigns about tobacco, at 16 percent, cigarette usage is at an all-time low in the US, down from 43 percent in 1972, and 30 percent in1989. Prior to the use of aggressive public education campaigns, the use of cigarettes remained relatively constant. 

In short, those who truly care about smoking cessation or stopping kids from picking up the habit in the first place, used the same method that tobacco companies effectively used, demonstrating that public education, not punishment, works. It makes sense. If the argument is that Black children specifically are at greater risk of smoking menthols because of advertising, why wouldn’t advertising also serve as an instrument to deter usage?

As the Reason Foundation showed, that while it’s true that menthol cigarettes are marketed and used more by Black people, it’s also true that public education has significantly lowered the use of all cigarette usage.

Also from the Reason Foundation:

…the number of high schoolers smoking menthol cigarettes every day is now so low it cannot t be measured with any degree of accuracy.

In 2019, the overall youth smoking rate fell to its lowest level on record: 5.8 percent.

States with higher volumes of menthol cigarettes sold, relative to other cigarettes, have the lowest youth smoking rates.

One would hope that after all the ways that the drug war with its prohibition and consequent targeted criminalization did far more harm than good, that there would finally be a consensus about never looking to those acts as reasonable and effective ones.

But US legislators have so regularly missed the mark on passing bills that actually help people, particularly Black people, we’re left with proposals designed to let no one in our community breathe. That job is now up to us.

SEE MORE:

Black Man Dies After Telling Ohio Cop With Knee Near His Neck, ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ Sound Familiar?

All Cigarettes Matter: Why Ban Just Menthols? Statistics Show 77% Of Black Smokers Prefer Them

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