WASHINGTON, USA — A statewide campaign called "Flavors Hook Kids Washington" aims to ban all flavored tobacco products. The effort comes from lawmakers, health experts and anti-tobacco groups working to undo decades of marketing campaigns that targeted the Black community.
KING 5's Facing Race team reported two weeks ago about how big tobacco targeted the Black community when it came to pushing menthol sales. From glamorous ads in Black publications to packaging of the actual products, the message was that if you smoked menthols, you were cool.
At the rollout of the statewide anti-flavored tobacco campaign on Wednesday, many of the speakers shared a tragic common thread.
"My mother passed away from lung cancer at just the age of 60 years old," Kristine Reeves said. Reeves is the state representative for Washington's 30th legislative district, which includes Federal Way.
"My father never saw his grandchildren because he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day," Tacoma NAACP president Jonathan Johnson said.
Rep. Kristine Reeve's mother and Johnson's father and sister smoked menthol cigarettes.
They were three out of hundreds of thousands of Black Americans who have fallen victim to big tobacco's relentless and glamorous advertising in media and in the neighborhood.
In 2009, the federal government banned all cigarette flavoring except menthol and tobacco.
"While it may be a culturally attached thing, at the end of the day it is killing community and we need to do the work to ban it alongside all other flavors," Reeves said.
Reeves, who will be the prime sponsor of this flavored tobacco ban bill in the upcoming legislative session, said she expects pushback from those who want to keep menthols around. Some against the ban have said banning menthols would lead to illegal cigarette sales, leading to the criminalization of smokers of color.
Reeves and Johnson disagree with that statement.
"No one likes to be played," Johnson said. "They're being played when they're told those things. Marketing is a very significant tool. Marketing used to abuse people--I disavow and I refuse to allow that to be a part of our community."
"I do think it is important to recognize the history of menthol to recognize it was deeply embedded to attract Black smokers over the course of time and it has done its job," Reeves added. "But that doesn't mean we can't change, that we can't adapt and quite frankly that we can't highlight that the same industry that targeted Black smokers is now targeting our children, not because they care about us but because they care about their revenue stream."
The FDA did recommend in 2022 that a menthol ban would save thousands of Black lives. However, a federal ban on menthols was delayed in April 2024. There's no timeline for when that decision will be made.
The statewide flavored tobacco ban bill is expected to be introduced in January 2025 in Washington's next legislative session.