Tobacco remains a lawful product. These measures are not based on a finding that menthol or flavoring increases the carcinogenic risk of smoking. Rather, the fear is that they are too popular and will only serve to increase sales. It is the same premise used to ban advertising at sporting events and calls to put graphic imagery on products.

It is akin pushing green energy policies by banning a non-electric car model because it is wildly popular. If the Administration wants to seek a ban on tobacco, it should do so. However, consumers should be allowed lifestyle choices, including unhealthy choices from high-fat diets to alcohol abuse.

These paternalistic measures tend to only shift costs and markets. If the consumers want menthol cigarettes, they are likely to turn to the black market with the assistance of criminal gangs smuggling the products over the border.

[Are menthol additives harmful at all? If not, why would the FDA regulate them in the first place? The federal government will allow cigarettes to be sold despite their clear health risks, but wants to ban menthol even though no hard data shows any increase in those risks vis-a-vis the cigarette itself. This is sheer and incoherent nanny-statism. — Ed]