What's Ahead With Steve Forbes by Forbes - Dailymotion

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12/5/2023

Steve Forbes explains how lessons from prohibition show that banning menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars could do more harm than good.

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00:00 The U.S. is about to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

00:04 As usual, such prohibitions will have the unintended consequence of doing more harm

00:09 than good.

00:10 Hello, I'm Steve Forbes and this is What's Ahead, where you get the insights you need

00:17 to better navigate these turbulent times.

00:21 Experience shows time and time again that forcibly curtailing popular products backfires,

00:27 leading to illicit use and lawbreaking.

00:30 Our baleful bout with prohibition a century ago, whereby the manufacturing and sale of

00:35 liquor were made illegal, should forever serve as a precaution for busybody bureaucrats,

00:41 politicians and meddling pressure groups of the folly of compulsion rather than education

00:47 in changing people's use of certain items and services.

00:51 But no, the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, is sending proposed regulations to

00:57 the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review.

01:02 They could take effect possibly by the end of this year.

01:05 These rules would prohibit menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.

01:10 Proponents claim these edicts will save hundreds of thousands of lives.

01:14 They will not.

01:15 As happened during prohibition, they'll gin up black market activity and smuggling.

01:21 Like the backcountry stills churning out whiskey during prohibition, illegal production of

01:25 menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars will crop up.

01:29 These prohibited products will also be smuggled in from other countries, especially Mexico.

01:35 Advocates say these new regulations are necessary to save our vulnerable youth from taking up

01:41 these bad-for-your-health habits.

01:43 Anyone who knows anything about teenagers in particular and human nature in general

01:49 will know that argument is nonsense.

01:51 Compulsion usually backfires.

01:54 Education is the key.

01:56 And all the warnings about ingesting smoke into one's lungs have been having an impact.

02:02 The data back this up.

02:04 Smoking among young people has been plummeting.

02:07 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, found that the level of smoking among

02:13 high schoolers is at an historic low.

02:16 Cigar smoking is down by more than a third.

02:20 And vaping by young people, which supposedly is a scourge, is at a decade low of 10 percent.

02:26 Banning menthol smokes among adults using them won't work well either.

02:31 Poland, where menthol cigarette use is high, outlawed them.

02:35 Result?

02:36 No drop in overall cigarette use.

02:39 Massachusetts enacted a ban on all flavored tobacco products.

02:43 People bought them from neighboring states.

02:46 Which underlines what will be a real smuggling problem that will arise with what the FDA

02:51 is about to do.

02:53 The move will further enrich the powerful Mexican drug cartels, which have been feasting

02:59 on bringing in illegal immigrants thanks to President Biden's unofficial open border policy.

03:06 The FDA ban will also devastate makers of flavored cigars.

03:10 Not that government bureaucrats would care.

03:12 Remember, most users don't inhale cigar smoke.

03:16 They're hardly a threat to public health, as are cigarettes.

03:20 The FDA should, but won't, back off.

03:23 Law enforcement will be left to deal with the resulting mess.

03:27 I'm Steve Forbes.

03:28 Thanks for listening.

03:29 Do send in your comments and suggestions.

03:32 I look forward to being with you soon again.

03:34 [MUSIC]

03:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]

What's Ahead With Steve Forbes

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