Biden SCRAPS plans to ban menthol cigarettes after political pressure to deter Black voters ahead of 2024 election

The White House is scrapping a long-awaited ban on menthol cigarettes to avoid angering Black voters months before the 2024 election.

After dragging out the process for months, the government is expected to announce the reversal on Friday, sources told The Washington Post Wall Street Journal.

Experts previously told DailyMail.com that the ban would alienate black voters who have drifted away from the president in the polls and also increase crime across the country.

This was evident from a recent opinion poll Black Americans are not very enthusiastic about Biden, and 40 percent do not plan to vote in the 2024 election.

The administration’s lifting of the proposed menthol ban could be a call for Biden’s supporters to stay on the bandwagon just over six months until Election Day.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Xavier Becerra said in a statement to DailyMail.com that the proposed ban has received “historic attention” and that it is therefore “clear that further conversations need to be had, and that will take significantly more time.”

Menthol cigarettes account for almost a third of the industry’s market share in the US and are incredibly popular with smokers.

In 2022, the FDA announced that it was creating new standards for tobacco products that would ban the use of menthol flavoring. Nearly two years later, the ban is still not in effect, and special interest groups for and against the ban have pressured the White House to get the job done.

Protesters marched on Black Lives Matter Plaza in January calling for a menthol ban

They have also long been particularly popular among black smokers, with 81 percent of them choosing the menthol varieties, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The minty flavor added to these products typically appeals to young, novice smokers, making them dangerous in the eyes of the White House, medical associations and civil rights groups.

According to findings from a Nuestro PAC survey, Black and Latino voters were also concerned that the proposed ban would “push the product into the illegal black market” and increase crime.

Eighty percent of Black and Latinos said they agreed the administration should “fully investigate the concerns” before moving forward with the ban.

These findings are consistent with a recent effort by Rev. Al Sharpton who is urging the government to reverse the proposed ban.

The Biden administration had maintained that criminalizing menthols would reduce Americans’ addiction over time.

“The proposed rules would help prevent children from becoming the next generation of smokers and help adult smokers quit,” said HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra said it before.

“Additionally, the proposed rules represent an important step to advance health equity by significantly reducing tobacco-related health disparities,” he continued.

“The FDA remains committed to promulgating tobacco product standards for menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars as quickly as possible; these rules have been submitted to OMB for review, which is the final step in the rulemaking process,” an FDA spokesperson told DailyMail.com in a statement.

“As we have made clear, these product standards remain a top priority.”

‘Regulations such as product standards undergo an extensive regulatory process, including inter-agency review. At this stage in the rulemaking, FDA is limited in further discussions about the rules before they are published.”

Yet many who advocate the ban argue that banning flavored products will reduce their use and therefore save lives.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a 21-state letter to the White House in January saying the time to act is “now.”

A group of anti-menthol activists held a funeral for flavored tobacco outside the White House earlier this year.

The protesters pulled out a huge counterfeit pack of menthol cigarettes and marched with it down the street in a mock funeral parade a block from the White House.

“Ban Menthol Save Black Lives” read the signs at the event.

“Today we join advocates of a menthol funeral in demanding that the White House issue final rules banning the sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars,” said one participant on X.

Two years after announcing intentions to ban menthol, the FDA and White House have not set new standards for the substance’s use in tobacco products

Banning menthol is not unusual, the additive is currently banned in Canada since 2017 and banned in the European Union since 2020.

It is also banned in California and Massachusetts, as well as many local counties across the country.

“Menthol makes cigarettes more attractive and easier to smoke,” according to the CDC.

‘Moreover, menthol enhances the addictive effect of nicotine in the brain. The amount of nicotine, the addictive drug in tobacco products, in menthol cigarettes has increased in recent years.”