NY sheriffs say Hochul proposal to ban menthol cigs will only fuel black market

A top state law enforcement group wants to stub out Gov. Hochul’s planned ban on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco while raising the tax on smokes by $1 — claiming it’ll fuel the black market, be hard to enforce and worsen police-community relations.

The unusual blowback comes from the New York State Sheriffs’ Association, which pushed back in a Feb. 15 letter to Hochul, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

The group — repping the city’s sheriff’s office and others across the state — cited a study that found more than half of cigs smoked in New York are smuggled in, draining $1 billion in tax revenue and flouting tobacco regs.

“We believe the proposed flavored tobacco ban and excise tax increase will only exacerbate this problem and provide hundreds of millions of dollars in additional illicit profit to criminals and criminal organizations,” Sheriff’s Association executive director Peter Kehoe wrote Hochul.

“Our long experience has been that there is always adjacent criminal activity to any black market. Any further increase in crime will be a burden on our already strained resources.”

Hochul’s proposed ban comes in the wake of a lax state law legalizing weed, and as the city’s Sheriff’s Office struggles to stop smoke shops from illegally selling pot and other cannabis products, including with a direct appeal for help from Mayor Adams .

Cigarette sellers have accused Hochul of a double standard — proposing a ban on flavored tobacco while allowing sales of flavor-infused and fruity-scented marijuana merch. New York bans the sale of flavored vaping products.

Kehoe argues cracking down on “new types of contraband that has heretofore been widely available and socially accepted” will only cause more friction with the public.

“Police-community relations are still in a delicate state. Scrutinizing citizens and business
establishments for what many will likely consider a garden-variety vice could exhaust what remaining goodwill law enforcement has with the people,” the letter stated.

The stance aligns with Gwenn Carr , the mother of Eric Garner, 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. Carr contends a ban could lead to more “unintended consequences.”

Kehoe also said outlawing flavored tobacco in Massachusetts was offset by increased sales in smokes in neighboring New Hampshire and Rhode Island — triggering a “significant black market” in the Bay State.

The Sheriffs’ letter urged Hochul to scrap the proposed ban — and to work with law enforcement “to develop targeted strategies to combat the existing illicit tobacco trade” that “undermines public health policy by trafficking cheap and unregulated tobacco” to New York and its youngsters.

Powerful Assembly Majority Leader Crystal People-Stokes , a Buffalo Democrat, and a group of black ministers also oppose the ban, preferring an educational stop-smoking campaign.

But Hazel Dukes, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, has joined anti-smoking advocates supporting Hochul’s ban, arguing the tobacco industry has targeted the black community for decades with cancer-causing menthol smokes.

Hochul’s office defends the ban as lifesaving by preventing people from getting hooked on sweet smokes.

The governor also proposes hiking the tax on a pack of cigarettes to $5.35 from $4.35.

“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 Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays.

The proposed ban is projected to cut the number of young people smoking by 9%, preventing 22,000 kids from becoming adult smokers, and curbing premature deaths.

The governor’s office also said the ban would be a civil penalty imposed by local health departments — and in the city by the Department of Consumer Affairs and Worker Protection — and not by law enforcement.

While the proposal aims to reduce the use of the products, it wouldn’t make it illegal to possess, purchase, or use flavored tobacco products, but instead target retailers who sell them, Hochul aides said.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in New York and the US. In 2020, 22.5% of youths used an e-cigarette. Every year, approximately 4,300 New Yorkers under 18 become daily smokers, statistics show.

About 280,000 New Yorkers under 18 are projected to die prematurely from smoking, while an additional 28,200 New York adults die annually from smoking.