It’s hard to imagine that the country that gave birth to Big Tobacco may soon sentence Americans to prison for selling menthol cigarettes or flavored e-cigarettes.
Yet in states that have forbidden these products, arrests and prosecutions are already occurring.
The Food and Drug Administration is also expected to imminently announce a federal ban on menthol cigarettes and to order the vast majority of e-cigarettes off the market.
Whatever the public health merits of these policies, there is a danger that they will hit a tipping point at which they go beyond mere regulation to full prohibition—and as with past prohibitions on drugs and alcohol, they will likely give rise to illicit markets requiring police enforcement.
It is therefore vital that we consider them not only for their impacts on public health, but also as emerging issues in criminal justice.
Jacob Grier – LiberalCurrents – 2022-04-27.