Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recently proposed tobacco flavor ban and $1 tax increase on cigarettes is shortsighted. Prohibitionist policies and regressive taxes such as this will only hurt small businesses, strengthen the illicit underground market and have no meaningful health impact on adults or children. Additionally, any ban on specific tobacco items while the state is legalizing and expanding retail cannabis sales is contradictory and punitive.
In New York state, more than 13,000 licensed retailers sell flavored tobacco products, employ hundreds of thousands of people and generate more than $1.1 billion in tax revenue annually. In addition to retailers, wholesalers and distributors depend on these sales and the employment associated with them.
Banning the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, would affect thousands of jobs. In addition to the economic impact on the workforce, this proposed prohibition would eliminate $432.4 million in state tax revenue.
Prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes and other products will remove these products from regulated, taxed retail stores but will not prevent them from being accessed by consumers. These products will remain readily available to consumers in nearby states, on the flourishing criminal underground market for cigarettes and on tribal land.
In the 12 months following Massachusetts’s ban of flavored tobacco products, menthol cigarette sales skyrocketed by more than 126% in the Rhode Island and New Hampshire border counties. In addition to cross-border sales, the state also saw an increase in illegal smuggling, a problem New York is all too familiar with. A flavor ban is a sure guarantee that this criminal activity will become more prevalent in New York.
Lastly, the state is proudly opening retail spaces for recreational cannabis. In fact, a retail space recently opened that is selling cannabis vape pens with flavors such as grapefruit, pineapple, cereal milk and tropical. To attack tobacco retailers as vehicles for underage smoking while promoting flavored cannabis is hypocritical and unfair.
The writer is president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores.
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