The menthol ban is a proposed U.S. federal rule that would prohibit menthol as a flavoring in cigarettes and ban all characterizing flavors in cigars. The FDA first proposed the rule in April 2022, estimating it could prevent 650,000 premature deaths over 40 years. After repeated delays, the Trump administration formally withdrew the proposed rules on January 21, 2025, effectively killing the effort in its current form.
Why Menthol Was Singled Out
In 2009, Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which banned all characterizing flavors in cigarettes, like cherry, clove, and vanilla, with one exception: menthol. At the time, menthol cigarettes made up roughly a third of the U.S. cigarette market, and the political will to ban them simply wasn’t there. Instead, the law required the FDA to study menthol’s effects and decide later whether to act.
That exception had consequences. After flavored cigarettes disappeared from shelves, the use of flavored cigars and cigarillos surged, suggesting smokers (especially younger ones) migrated to other flavored products. Nearly 74% of youth cigar users aged 12 to 17 said they smoked cigars specifically because they came in flavors they liked. By 2020, more young people were trying a cigar for the first time each day than trying a cigarette.
How Menthol Makes Cigarettes Harder to Quit
Menthol isn’t just a flavor. It actively changes the experience of smoking in ways that make the habit stickier. The compound activates cooling receptors that line the mouth, throat, and lungs, suppressing the cough reflex and reducing the burning irritation of inhaled smoke. It also triggers pain-relieving opioid receptors, further dulling discomfort. The result is a smoother, easier inhale that lets new smokers tolerate cigarettes they might otherwise find too harsh.
Beyond masking harshness, menthol appears to change how the brain responds to nicotine itself. Brain imaging studies have shown that menthol smokers have greater increases in nicotine receptors compared to non-menthol smokers. In lab studies, menthol altered the structure and function of these receptors in ways that differ from nicotine alone, potentially deepening physical dependence. Animal research found that menthol isn’t rewarding on its own but increases consumption of nicotine solutions by masking nicotine’s bitter taste.
The practical outcome: people who smoke menthol cigarettes make more attempts to quit than non-menthol smokers, but they succeed less often. The cooling sensation and pain relief that made the first cigarette tolerable also make the last one harder to put down.
The Racial Health Equity Argument
The menthol ban became inseparable from questions of racial justice because of decades of deliberate marketing. Starting in the 1960s and accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s, tobacco companies hired ethnic marketing firms and placed ads featuring Black models, athletes, and entertainers in publications like Jet, Ebony, and Essence. These ads leaned on themes of sophistication, nightlife, and escape, appearing at far higher rates in Black-targeted media than in general-audience magazines.
The strategy worked. Today, roughly 85% of Black smokers use menthol cigarettes, compared to about 30% of white smokers. In surveys, 63% of Black menthol smokers said they had always smoked menthol, and 41% cited their friends’ brand choices as a reason for their own, reflecting how deeply the preference became embedded in social networks. Nearly half of Black respondents said menthol cigarettes were easier to inhale, compared to 21% of white respondents, pointing to the biological masking effects that make initiation simpler.
Simulation modeling published in BMJ Open projected that a menthol ban would have outsized benefits for Black Americans. Experts estimated that 48% of Black individuals who would otherwise start smoking menthol cigarettes would never begin smoking or vaping at all, compared to 39% for the general population. Black menthol smokers aged 35 to 54 were also projected to quit at higher rates (27% vs. 22% overall).
Projected Public Health Impact
The same simulation study estimated that a menthol ban would reduce overall smoking prevalence by about 15% as early as the first full year of implementation, as menthol smokers either quit entirely or switched to non-combustible nicotine products. Over a 40-year horizon from 2021 to 2060, the model projected 650,000 fewer smoking-related deaths and 11 million fewer life-years lost. By 2060, total smoking prevalence would fall from 5.1% to 4.3%, a 15% relative reduction beyond what would happen without the ban.
Opposition and Industry Arguments
Tobacco companies, led by Reynolds and Altria, mounted a multi-pronged campaign against the proposed rule. Their core scientific argument was that menthol cigarettes are no more toxic than regular cigarettes, and that the evidence linking menthol to increased initiation, deeper addiction, or reduced cessation success shows correlation, not causation. By framing the standard of proof as requiring definitive causation rather than strong association, the industry aimed to undermine the FDA’s legal justification.
Their second major argument centered on illicit trade. Industry representatives warned a ban would flood the market with unregulated contraband menthol cigarettes, increase sales to minors through black market channels, push smokers to add menthol to regular cigarettes themselves, and disproportionately criminalize Black Americans for their smoking preferences. They also pointed to lost tax revenue and payments under the Master Settlement Agreement, the 1998 deal in which tobacco companies pay states billions annually.
Civil liberties organizations raised related concerns. The ACLU and some Black community leaders argued that a ban could lead to increased policing of Black neighborhoods, drawing parallels to the enforcement consequences of other prohibition-style policies. This created an unusual political dynamic where some public health advocates and some civil rights groups landed on opposite sides.
Timeline of Delays and Withdrawal
The FDA’s path toward a menthol ban stretched over more than a decade of study, public comment, and postponement. The agency proposed formal rules in April 2022, covering both menthol in cigarettes and all characterizing flavors in cigars. The final rule was initially expected by mid-2023, then pushed to March 2024. In December 2023, the White House delayed the rules again without setting a new date. March 31, 2024 passed with no action, prompting public health organizations to sue the FDA over the continued delay.
On January 21, 2025, the first day of the new Trump administration, both proposed rules were formally withdrawn. The withdrawal did not go through the standard regulatory process of public comment or scientific review. It simply removed the proposals from the federal rulemaking pipeline, leaving no active federal effort to restrict menthol in cigarettes or flavors in cigars.
What Remains in Place
Several states and cities have enacted their own menthol bans independent of the FDA. California, Massachusetts, and a number of local jurisdictions prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. These laws remain in effect and are unaffected by the federal withdrawal. For the roughly two-thirds of the country without state or local restrictions, menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars continue to be sold without limitation.