In less than ten hours menthol cigarettes will be banned, prohibited, forbidden, verboten.
This is quite something. An entire category of cigarettes, 25 per cent of the UK fag market – will disappear overnight tonight.
Tomorrow, when you go into your local convenience store or supermarket, they will no longer be available.
Judging by my inbox over the last few weeks there has been some confusion concerning the ban, not helped by reports that implied that, in addition to menthol cigarettes, rolling tobacco and ‘skinny’ cigarettes were also going to be outlawed.
I’m not sure whether it was accidental or a deliberate attempt by tobacco control to confuse, but reports at New Year claimed:
Since then pretty much the same report has reappeared online in a series of waves - in March, and again this month.
Almost every report features a quote by Hazel Cheeseman or Deborah Arnott of ASH, sometimes both.
We’ve been monitoring them and I’ve lost count of the number that have appeared on national and local newspaper website, often more than once.
While monitoring them I’ve yet to see a single comment from an opponent of the ban. This is despite the fact that Forest has been systematically sending out our own response, often targeting the journalists whose by-line appears on the ASH-centred reports.
If I didn’t know better I’d guess that these were promotional, paid for reports because why else would virtually the same reports reappear, months apart, with not one featuring an opposing quote.
The law of averages alone suggests that at least one journalist would deign to ‘balance’ their report with an opposing comment but it has never happened.
If these are promotional ‘stories’ I’d love to know how much they cost and who paid for them.
Anyway, hats off to ASH - as propaganda goes, a good job well done!
The absence this week of any national reports of the ban (by which I mean the national print and broadcast media) has surprised me a bit because I thought it would attract some attention.
I know we’re in the middle of a coronavirus, and I know the actual legislation was passed several years ago, and the media circus invariably moves on.
Nevertheless we are talking about the eradication of a product that has been purchased and enjoyed by millions of smokers for more than 80 years.
(The history of menthol cigarettes is quite interesting. You can read more about it here.)
There are conflicting reports about how many people smoke menthol cigarettes in the UK. A 2018 study suggested that 12 per cent of smokers smoke menthols while the tobacco industry says one in four cigarettes sold in the UK are menthol or capsule cigarettes.
Capsule filters were a rather clever invention. I tried one (for research purposes!) a few years ago (and, no, I didn’t become addicted) and it worked extremely well.
I’m surprised by the number of smokers who have never heard of them. Only last week I had to explain to an elderly smoker - a member of the Friends of Forest Facebook group - what a capsule cigarette is (or was).
Basically, you press a button on the filter and it releases the flavour of menthol into the cigarette. There is a noticeable difference in taste and I found it rather enjoyable.
Then again, I’ve always liked the flavour of menthol cigarettes. When I was in sixth form at school in St Andrews a friend of mine used to smoke them and I would (very) occasionally smoke one of his and I quite liked it.
It never encouraged me to become a smoker, though, probably because my parents disapproved of children smoking.
I remember arriving home from school one day and my mother was convinced I’d been smoking. I reassured her that I hadn’t and that the smell of tobacco smoke on my clothes was the result of sitting on the top deck of the school bus!
Also, I didn’t enjoy smoking enough to spend what little money I had on cigarettes. When I went to university I spent it on alcohol instead.
Anyway, back to the confusion, deliberate or otherwise, that has been planted in people’s minds.
At one point I had several people running around, searching the internet for government documents in Westminster and Brussels that would confirm what was banned under the Tobacco Products Directive, and what wasn’t.
You have no idea how difficult it was. For example, we’re told that ‘slim’ or ‘skinny’ cigarettes are banned.
As far as I can tell, that’s not the case. That idea was rejected but ‘slim’ and ‘lipstick’ packs were banned instead. I suppose that’s a de facto ban but at risk of being pedantic it’s not true to say that ‘slim ‘ cigarettes are prohibited.
And what about rolling tobacco with ‘characterising flavours’?
I was told that flavoured-rolling tobacco was banned in 2017 but then I discovered numerous online retailers selling ... flavoured tobacco. And not just menthol.
Why the confusion?
I’m not a conspiracy theorist but it does seem to me that any confusion helps the anti-smoking industry because if consumers are unsure what they can (or cannot) legally buy, most will err on the side of caution and the market will fall away.
To be clear, from tomorrow the sale of flavoured rolling tobacco will definitely be illegal - if it wasn’t already - but non-flavoured rolling tobacco, the sort overwhelming used by smokers who prefer rollies (or can’t afford to buy factory made cigarettes) will still be legal.
This should absolutely clear to consumers but you’d be surprised how many smokers have asked us whether all hand-rolling tobacco will be banned.
The reason this has happened is because of all those ambiguous reports that have appeared online since the turn of the year.
There has been no government awareness campaign (a Populus poll for Forest revealed that almost 40 per cent of smokers were unaware of the ban) and therefore no clarification of the new regulations.
The tobacco industry is prevented from engaging with consumers and has therefore focused on getting the message out via retailers and trade publications. Several tobacco companies have launched micro-sites on the subject but, again, they are restricted in what they can do in terms of promotion.
In terms of neutral information, perhaps the clearest is provided by the Association of Convenience Stores, but inevitably much of it is targeted at retailers not consumers.
In view of all that, Forest has created its own guide, 'Menthol Cigarette Ban: What Consumers Need To Know'.
I hope it’s clear but it wasn’t as easy to write as I thought it would be. You can download it here.