Hochul gets pushback on menthol cigarettes ban by Buffalo Democrat

A prominent leader in the New York Assembly wants to snuff out Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push to ban menthol cigarettes and other flavored smokes.

“I understand the impetus of the policy is to get people to stop smoking, which is a good thing,” said Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes.

“But I think it shouldn’t be this selective. It goes way too deep … and would be a mistake, so I will be working to have it excluded,” the Democrat said during a press conference with black ministers in Buffalo on Thursday, who also opposed Hochul’s ban.

The event was reported by WGRZ.com in Buffalo. Peoples-Stokes and Hochul both hail from Buffalo.

Meanwhile, the mother of Eric Garner, 43, who died in 2014 after being put in an illegal chokehold by an NYPD officer while being arrested on suspicion of illegally selling loose cigarettes on Staten Island, also opposes the ban.

“An all-out prohibition would have unintended consequences, and I feel very strongly that my son, Eric Garner, was a victim of a violent and lethal encounter with police over allegedly selling loosies,” Gwen Carr told The Post.

“Educate our communities rather than create new problems and criminal activity that will bring enforcement entities into communities of color.”

The proposed ban has divided the black community.

A large percentage of blacks smokers choose menthol cigarettes. Both Peoples-Stokes and Carr are black.

But Hazel Dukes, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, supports Hochul’s ban, arguing that the tobacco industry has targeted the black community with cancer-causing menthol cigarettes.

“We stopped taking money from the tobacco companies because of the higher death rate in the African-American and brown communities,” Dukes previously told The Post.

Hochul also proposed hiking the cigarette tax by $1 — from $4.35 to $5.35 per pack —to discourage smoking, a leading cause of lung cancer.

Merchants who sell cigarettes and oppose the ban applauded the growing opposition to Hochul’s proposal.

“A ban is only going to drive the illicit economy,” said Kent Soris, president of the New York State Association of Convenience Stores.

But the governor has defended the measures as life saving by preventing youths from getting hooked on flavored cigs.

“With tobacco use the leading cause of preventable deaths, Governor Hochul is leading the way to a tobacco-free generation to reduce youth smoking and prevent senseless deaths. As with any budget proposal, we will work with the legislature on the final details for the best way to protect public health,” said the governor’s spokeswoman, Hazel Crampton-Hays.

The New York City Council sought to ban flavored tobacco in 2019, until the Rev. Al Sharpton and others objected, claiming that such a prohibition would boost black market sales and consequently lead to increased confrontations with police. That bill stalled.