In June of 2020, Massachusetts enacted a ban on flavored tobacco and nicotine vaping products and other nicotine delivery systems. They also banned menthol cigarettes. In less than a year, legislators began working to repeal all or at least parts of the ban. They cited enforcement issues and significant losses in retail revenue (and taxes, of course) as some of their concerns, but the ban remains. Those things happened as predicted. More data continued to pour in describing “unintended consequences” arising from the ban. These included a spike in cigarette smoking, particularly among Black women and all groups under the age of 25. Now, with the release of the latest annual report from the Massachusetts Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force, we’ve learned of the other predicted result. Smuggling and tobacco piracy involving menthol cigarettes has been on the rise. As Jacob Grier of Reason Magazine put it, the ban went “as badly as you’d expect.” (Emphasis added)Read More
Menthol bans predictably boost tobacco pirates
