How Menthol Cigarettes Became Black Americans’ Preferred Smoke

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The harsh history of smooth-smoking cigarettes.

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Nearly five years ago, on a muggy August night, I stepped outside and smoked my last cigarette. I’d just gotten off the phone with my Nana, who reminded me that my grandfather, a former smoker, died of lung cancer. My Nana isn’t a somber woman, not usually, but that night it was on her spirit. She solemnly asked me what I was going to do. And I, not usually a dutiful granddaughter, pivoted from my rebellious ways and obliged.It wasn’t a bad choice to make.

“You’re getting a high level of nicotine to the brain, you’re getting it quickly, which reinforces behavior, and you’re also able to titrate the dose,” explained Neal Benowitz, an emeritus medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco and expert on smoking’s biological consequences. “If you get too much … you take a longer time until the next puff. Because of high levels, you overcome tolerance that would be present if you were using lowered levels.

My decision to start smoking menthols wasn’t a conscious one. They were the type of cigarette I saw smoked the most by the people around me, but I did deliberately choose to keep smoking them after I’d tried nonmentholated cigarettes. In the other option, the nasty taste of cigarette smoke was evident, and the smoke seemed thicker and harsher. Taking a pull from a nonmentholated cigarette required more lung power. It was like inhaling smog.

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