Black Americans smoke a range of tobacco and cannabis products, but the patterns differ notably from other racial groups. Menthol cigarettes dominate, with 73% of Black adults who smoke choosing menthol varieties, a rate 3.3 times higher than among white smokers. Beyond menthol cigarettes, little cigars and cigarillos, cannabis, and increasingly e-cigarettes all play a role in smoking behavior within Black communities.
Menthol Cigarettes Are the Most Common Choice
The single most defining feature of smoking among Black Americans is the overwhelming preference for menthol cigarettes. Nearly three out of four Black adults who smoke use menthol products, the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. This preference didn’t develop organically. Tobacco companies have aggressively marketed menthol cigarettes to Black communities since at least the 1950s, using ad campaigns featuring Black models and hip-hop icons, sponsoring cultural events, and placing menthol-specific promotions in stores near schools with higher percentages of Black students.
That targeting continues today. Stores in neighborhoods with more Black residents give menthol products more shelf space and advertise them more heavily. In some areas, menthol marketing appears near candy displays in stores located in neighborhoods with more Black children. Price promotions like discounts and multi-pack coupons, which are disproportionately used by Black consumers, further drive sales.
Overall Cigarette Smoking Is Declining
Despite the heavy marketing, cigarette smoking among Black adults has dropped significantly. Between 2011 and 2020, the smoking rate fell from 19.4% to 14.4%, and the total number of Black adults who smoke declined from 5.1 million to 4.0 million. That’s meaningful progress, though a disparity persists: Black adults still smoke at roughly 1.8 times the rate of the lowest-prevalence groups. Among Black youth, about 10% of middle and high school students currently use some form of tobacco product.
Little Cigars and Cigarillos
Black Americans, particularly young adults, are more likely than white Americans to use little cigars and cigarillos (sometimes called LCCs). These are slim, often flavored, and sold cheaply at convenience stores, sometimes individually. While white young adults who use LCCs tend to cite flavor as their main reason, Black young adults more commonly report affordability as the driving factor. Stores in neighborhoods with more Black residents stock and advertise flavored little cigars and cigarillos more heavily, mirroring the same targeted retail strategy seen with menthol cigarettes.
Little cigars and cigarillos are also commonly used as wraps for cannabis, which blurs the line between tobacco and marijuana use in survey data and in practice.
Cannabis Use
Cannabis consumption among Black Americans is roughly on par with white Americans. In 2022, about 22.9% of Black adults reported using cannabis in the past year, identical to the rate among white adults. Where the numbers diverge is in frequency: Black Americans report higher rates of daily or near-daily cannabis use than white or Hispanic Americans. The most common method is smoking, whether in joints, blunts (using cigarillo wraps), or pipes, though edibles and vaping have grown in popularity across all demographics.
One persistent reality is the gap between use and enforcement. Despite similar usage rates across racial groups, Black Americans are four times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for cannabis-related offenses.
E-Cigarettes and Vaping
E-cigarette use among Black adults is growing but remains lower than among white adults. In 2019, 3.4% of Black adults vaped. By 2023, that figure had risen to 5.7%, a statistically significant increase. For comparison, 7.5% of white adults and 4.4% of Hispanic adults vaped in 2023. Young adults ages 21 to 24 are the heaviest users of e-cigarettes across all races, with a national average of 15.5%. While vaping is often framed as a cigarette alternative, for many users it represents an additional product rather than a replacement.
Why the Tobacco Industry Targets Black Communities
The patterns described above are not accidental. Tobacco companies have spent decades cultivating brand loyalty in Black communities through a coordinated strategy. They’ve donated to historically Black colleges and universities, funded scholarships, and given money to influential Black leaders and organizations. They’ve sponsored pop-up concerts featuring hip-hop artists inside convenience stores as part of campaigns aimed at Black young adults. They’ve advertised more heavily in magazines with larger Black readerships and promoted products at community events in majority-Black neighborhoods.
The retail environment is also shaped by industry strategy. Neighborhoods with more Black residents simply have more stores that sell tobacco. Those stores carry more advertising, more price promotions, and more shelf space dedicated to menthol and flavored products. This saturation makes it harder to avoid tobacco cues and easier to purchase products on impulse.
Health Impact
Black Americans tend to start smoking at a later age than white Americans, yet they are more likely to die from smoking-related diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. This paradox likely reflects several factors: the dominance of menthol cigarettes (which may make it harder to quit and allow deeper inhalation of smoke), reduced access to cessation resources, and the compounding effects of other health inequities.
About 73% of Black adults who smoke say they want to quit, and 63% report having made a quit attempt in the past year, a higher rate than the 53% reported by white adults. But fewer than 30% of Black adults who smoke use proven cessation tools like counseling or medication when trying to quit. The desire to stop is there; the support infrastructure often isn’t.
The Stalled Menthol Ban
Given that menthol cigarettes are central to smoking in Black communities, a proposed federal ban on menthol drew significant attention. The FDA had been moving toward finalizing a rule to prohibit menthol in cigarettes, but the effort stalled. In October 2025, a coalition that included the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and the American Medical Association voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit challenging the FDA’s delay, effectively closing the legal push for now. Menthol cigarettes remain on the market, and the public health groups involved have noted that the products continue to drive health disparities, make quitting harder, and draw in young smokers.