Eric Garner’s mother urges Sen. Schumer to oppose Biden’s menthol cigarette ban, citing its potential to ‘hurt blacks and Hispanics’, saying the move would only lead to an illicit market and potentially deadly clashes such as the Eric Garner case.
Sharpton’s National Action Network fired off a letter to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf citing the case of Garner, who died in July 2014 on Staten Island after being put in an for the ban to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget in October for review, signaling the menthol mandate is in its last stages of approval. OMB is set to conduct interviews with experts and others about the issue over the next three months before moving on the proposal, “Menthol prohibitions will create illicit markets and more police interactions, especially in minority communities,” NAN wrote in a June 2022 letter to Califf that was obtained by The Pos