Former New York mayor and failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has poured over a billion dollars into anti-tobacco groups that have pushed the Biden administration to ban menthol cigarettes, a move that critics fear will disproportionately affect black communities in the United States.
Bloomberg Philanthropies boasts on its website that it has invested $1.1 billion in the fight against tobacco use over the past decade. Two of the groups that have received a share of that funding — the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, or CTFK, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — have seeded officials into the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, the subagency behind the Biden administration’s proposal in April to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
More than 80% of black smokers use menthol cigarettes. Activists and law enforcement officials have expressed concern that if the FDA finalizes its menthol ban, it could lead to a law enforcement crackdown that will disproportionately target the black community.
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“The second that this menthol ban goes into effect, cigarettes are going to become contraband, and once they become contraband, law enforcement officers will have no choice but to deal with the illicit market,” Elliot Boyce, the director of the New York State Police Employee Assistance Program, told the FDA during the public comment period on June 13.
The FDA said its proposal would only target tobacco manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.
“Importantly, the FDA cannot and will not enforce against individual consumers for possession or use of menthol cigarettes or flavored cigars,” the FDA said of its proposed menthol ban in April.
Eric Garner, a black man, was killed by a New York City police officer in 2014 as he was being arrested after illegally selling cigarettes on a street corner. Many conservative commentators and lawmakers opined at the time of Garner’s killing that New York’s sky-high cigarette taxes incentivized him to participate in the illicit cigarette market.
In November 2013, about eight months before Garner’s killing, Bloomberg signed legislation into law as New York City’s mayor that raised taxes on cigarettes in the city and cracked down on cigarette tax evasion.
Other experts have expressed concerns that America’s already bustling contraband cigarette market will explode if the FDA enacts its menthol ban.
An estimated 1.9 billion packs of cigarettes were consumed in 2020 alone across the U.S. as a result of smokers seeking to evade sky-high local excise taxes, according to an analysis by Mackinac Center.
Mackinac Center Senior Director Michael LaFaive told the Washington Examiner that participants in the illicit drug market, including criminal cartels south of the border, are probably salivating at the prospect of being the only source of menthol cigarettes in the U.S. if the FDA enacts its ban.
“When you talk about banning a particular product that remains popular, you are invariably inviting illicit market participants to expand their supply chains,” LaFaive said. “In this case, it’s going to be mostly international.”
Drug cartels, LaFaive said, “are very sensitive to these types of opportunities. We’ve seen it with the drug trade. It would be no surprise if they ramped up the movement of illicit smokes throughout the country.”
Edgar Domenech, a former deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also warned the FDA during public comments in June that the agency’s proposed menthol ban would create “a perfect storm for organized crime groups to further entrench themselves in the illicit tobacco industry.”
“While the regulated industry will adhere to the new regulations, the reality is that organized crime groups will saturate the market with illegitimate and unregulated tobacco products,” Domenech warned.
CTFK, which has received $166 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies since 2008, boasts on its website that it led the outside effort to pass the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a 2009 law that authorized the FDA to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco products.
CTFK spokesman Dave Lemmon told the Washington Examiner the group’s advocacy for the 2009 law was not funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“Until 2019, Bloomberg Philanthropies funded only our global work,” Lemmon said.
Two years later, in 2011, former CTFK Director of Federal Relations Grayson Fowler joined the Office of Policy at the newly formed FDA Center for Tobacco Products, a role he still holds, according to his LinkedIn page.
In February 2021, CTFK published a report that called on the FDA to ban menthol cigarettes. Two months later, in April 2021, the FDA announced it was beginning to work toward issuing proposed rules to ban menthol as a cigarette flavor additive.
The same day of the FDA’s announcement that it would begin moving to ban menthol cigarettes, CTFK published a lengthy statement celebrating the Biden administration’s “truly historic announcement” and urged the FDA to “move swiftly, to propose, finalize and implement the necessary regulations to turn this decision into life-saving action.”
CTFK acknowledged in June 2021 that tobacco laws are often enforced disproportionately against black and brown people after police in Ocean City, Maryland, violently arrested black teenagers for vaping in public.
Our statement on the disturbing law enforcement incident that occurred in Ocean City, MD. pic.twitter.com/T0iXxuVD8s
— Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (@TobaccoFreeKids) June 14, 2021
Despite this, CTFK was among the signatories in an Aug. 2 letter that implored the FDA to finalize its menthol ban, saying there was “no justification, or excuse, to further delay” banning the additive.
CTFK has also expressed admiration for foreign leaders who have taken a hard line on enforcing tobacco prohibition policies.
For example, CTFK lauded former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in a 2017 strategy memo obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute for his “progressive policies on tobacco control” and said his 2017 nationwide public smoking ban, which imposed penalties of up to four months in prison, created “unprecedented opportunities for tobacco control.”
More than 12,000 Filipinos were killed during Duterte’s “War on Drugs,” according to Human Rights Watch.
“Regarding enforcement of the proposed menthol ban, the FDA has made it crystal clear enforcement will be on manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, not on individual possession or use,” Lemmon said. “The real injustice is the tobacco industry’s predatory targeting of the black community with marketing of menthol cigarettes and the enormous harm that is caused.”
“The tobacco industry is engaged in fearmongering about law enforcement abuse so it can keep targeting and profiting from the black community,” Lemmon added.
The Bloomberg School of Public Health, which has received over $3.5 billion from Bloomberg since 2001, has also seeded former employees and students into the FDA Center for Tobacco Products.
Among those include Center for Tobacco Products social scientist Lisa Lagesse, who joined the FDA subagency in 2020 after five years of service at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Institute for Global Tobacco Control, according to her LinkedIn page.
At least four students who graduated from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health also work for the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, according to a review of LinkedIn records.
Bloomberg personally praised the FDA in April 2021, when it first announced its intention to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes, a move he said was a “significant victory in our fight against the deadly, predatory tactics of the tobacco industry.”
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“For years, we’ve helped lead the charge for flavored tobacco bans — including menthol — in cities and state legislatures across the country,” Bloomberg said. “The FDA’s decision shows that the federal government is now leading on this important issue, which means a uniform and coordinated approach to reducing smoking and saving lives — and that will help us build on the work we’ve been doing and make even more progress.”
Bloomberg Philanthropies did not return a request for comment.
