Horace Sheffield offered $250K to oppose menthol ban

[Lowell]

Very interesting Free Press article on RJ Reynold's [the tobacco giant behind America's most popular brand of menthol cigarettes, Newport] efforts to oppose the proposed ban on menthol cigarettes.

Their efforts include offering huge sums to Afro-Am organizations and personalities such as Horace Sheffield, who is the pastor of the New Destiny Christian Fellowship and the head of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations. [He declined.]

https://freep-mi.newsmemory.com?publ...5548a1_13485bd

Interesting snips...

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced plans to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes, the flavor of choice, the FDA said, for 85% of Black smokers.

Chronic underfunding of Black-led organizations meant some could be convinced to take the money, Sheffield warned.

Every year, 40,000 Black people die from smoking-related diseases in the U.S. Almost all African Americans who smoke, some 93%, started with menthols.

“The last conversation we had, it was between $200,000 and $250,000 one time, plus additional money going forward if I would actually say, 'I thought about it, I'm on the wrong side,' ” he said. “I was told that some local people had gotten that much money and I could probably get more.”

RJ Reynolds, have exploited concerns about police brutality against Black citizens and at times failed to declare their links to the industry. Reynolds American is owned by British American Tobacco, based in London.

[Sheffield says,] “My concern with tobacco goes back to 1971, when I stood over my mother at Metropolitan Hospital and she took her last breath at 43 years of age. She could never stop smoking,” he said. “Black lives matter, but Black lungs do, too.”

[Scottathew]

It sickening how much corporate interests are influencing our politics, laws, and culture.

[Rocket]

Basically what they're saying is;

The Federal Government believes they need to deny blacks what they want, as they cannot make sound decisions about their own lives. The central government is better equipped to make such decisions.

[Zacha341]

^Yep. Not endorsing smoke inhalation [menthol or otherwise] but this is another example of us being handled. But hey! It's great 'this' time as the correct folk are in charge - blah-blah. I'm not convinced these bureaucratic solutions truly advance or affirm black people.

There's too much otherwise that does just the opposite; allowed - not addressed. Why the focus here while other issues are ignored?

This is but the tip of the iceberg. There are some who would love to have even more control and dictation [in the name of safety, and giving us short-term 'goods' et al], 'til it bows around to control them. Who's buying up the remaining farmable land? Checked lately?

What's being done about the fentanyl explosion? .....Crickets.....

Follow the money and watch out for the 'control'.

[stasu1213]

Don't care for Sheffield. However, this report is revealing. African American personalities are being prepositional. Sheffield also need to oppose the number of Marijuana dispensaries, strip clubs, and Hookah lounges that clutter Detroit neighborhoods. He, on his radio show, claimed that contaminated water was running underneath the Easter Market hinting that it should be shut down. He doesn't realize that the produce are brought in from farmers from other parts of Michigan and Eastern Market is the only farmers market inside Detroit

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

Basically what they're saying is;

The Federal Government believes they need to deny blacks what they want, as they cannot make sound decisions about their own lives. The central government is better equipped to make such decisions.

Can we assume that you want to get rid of restrictions on other deadly addictive substances, so everyone is free to make their “sound decisions?

[JBMcB]

Can we assume that you want to get rid of restrictions on other deadly addictive substances, so everyone is free to make their “sound decisions?

If people want something, banning it just pushes it underground, makes it more dangerous, and creates crime syndicates around production and distribution, making things worse for everyone.

Make it legal, tax the crap out of it, and push those funds into free addiction recovery programs instead of funneling it into the general fund, which is what most states do now.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

If people want something, banning it just pushes it underground, makes it more dangerous, and creates crime syndicates around production and distribution, making things worse for everyone.

Make it legal, tax the crap out of it, and push those funds into free addiction recovery programs instead of funneling it into the general fund, which is what most states do now.

Please name the states where taxes on meth, heroin, and so on go to the states’ general funds. If the War on Drugs ended and hard drugs are legal, I didn’t get the memo. And in states with legalized pot, such as here in CA, there is still a very vibrant criminal trade in pot expressly due to the high taxes on the legal weed.

[Rocket]

Please name the states where taxes on meth, heroin, and so on go to the states’ general funds.

I think if you reread your post, you'll realize you got that backwards.

Illegal things do NOT get taxed, but legal things do.

What JBM was saying was you want to keep it legal, and then tax the heck out of it.

And you brought up things that are illegal and therefore not taxed as an example of how he is wrong?



On another note [referencing a post you made 3-4 posts up), why don't we also ban Virginia Slims, so as to protect skinny white chicks? Or Marlboros to protect cowboys and bikers? Why just menthol's to "protect" blacks?

Wouldn't it make more sense to add $2 in tax per pack EVERY year on all cigarettes? Then people would slowly stop smoking?



And the point of my first post wasn't making any commentary on what should be legal or not, but rather just wondering out loud how many different ways the lefties in government can find to call their slav... er, I mean voters stupid ?

[Jason]

It's related to banning flavored tobacco products in general, since that's what teens start with.

[Richard]

Please name the states where taxes on meth, heroin, and so on go to the states’ general funds. If the War on Drugs ended and hard drugs are legal, I didn’t get the memo. And in states with legalized pot, such as here in CA, there is still a very vibrant criminal trade in pot expressly due to the high taxes on the legal weed.

So in other words no matter how high you tax something,you cannot tax it out of existence.

Well products anyways,you can tax people out of existence.

In New York it is $4.35 per pack just in taxes,$15 per pack,which to me is racist in itself,because it is a sin tax on the poor.

Cigarettes have always been expensive in the UK,$10 per pack when ours was $3,you cannot display them in public view in stores and people still buy and smoke them.

What about flavored alcohol? Peach Schnapps etc do they entice alcoholics?


There actually is a tax on meth and other drugs,not direct but it is called civil forfeiture,and you do not even have to be involved and still be forced to pay.

I have been smoking sense the 70s,seen lots of white people smoking menthol cigarettes,what white person decided it was their duty to protect African Americans from things that they deem as damaging to their health?

If we are going down that road,the entire southern African American diet is actually damaging their health,and was developed in the plantations.

I think we should ban people that spend all of their time looking for reasons to ban things under the guise that they are protecting them.

[Richard]

It's related to banning flavored tobacco products in general, since that's what teens start with.

Yes it was ment to go after Jule vapes,remember when that was all the rage because it was so much better then cigarettes?

When I was a teenager and started smoking,the flavors of cigarettes had little to do with reason or motive,just like at the same time with drugs.

If there was a pineapple flavored blend of hashish,I was not aware of it and it probably would not have made a difference anyways.

What about the people smoking spice,it’s made up from cleaning chemicals and smells nasty when it burns,the actual flavor does not or did not seem to effect its sales.

What can we ban in order to stop teen sex and teenage pregnancy?Or maybe a pecker tax?

They used to sell candy cigarettes,with all of the kids that ate them you would think 95% of children would have been smoking in the boys room.

How many teenagers actually are smoking ? In my high school there was a group of at the most 10 that actually smoked out of 1000.

British American Tobacco company,is actually a consortium of tobacco company’s that banded together in order to offshore ownership and limit lawsuit and tax liability.

The only thing that has been accomplished in this war against cigarettes is they moved production,jobs and revenue to tax friendly havens.

So in essence the government removed the tax burden from the corporations and placed it on the consumer at the cost of billions in revenue and thousands of jobs,all in order to protect people.

Every time the government claims they are doing something in the best interests of the population,who actually pays the heaviest price?

It seems like the ones they are always claiming to want to save are the ones that end up getting screwed the most by those actions.

I can grow one tobacco plant in my back yard and it will give me 1 pack of cigarettes per day for 1 year for less then $5 - tax it enough and it becomes profitable to grow like weed and sell it on the black market no different then the alcohol tax still makes it profitable to moonshine.

Next it will be,selling little bottles of menthol like they used to do with hash oil,dip a regular cigarette in it and you have an instant menthol smoke.

Notice how nobody is pushing to ban THC infused gummy bears that are popular with teenagers and children?