NEW YORK (PIX11) — Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, is taking the battle to derail an FDA recommendation to ban menthol cigarettes right to Senator Chuck Schumer’s Midtown office.
Surrounded by activists, community leaders and law enforcement veterans, they said menthol cigarettes menthols are the overwhelming choice of smokers in communities of color.
Reps from the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network said it would only fuel a black market on menthol cigarettes and create increased encounters with police.
Possibly encounters like the one on Staten Island in 2014 when Eric Garner died in a police chokehold after illegally selling loose cigarettes.
The FDA and health advocates said menthol-flavored cigarettes prey directly on communities of color. The White House could approve a nationwide ban in just a matter of weeks.
Critics of a ban said it’s all the more misguided with marijuana now openly legal to buy in so many communities of color.
