For those of us without a NYT account, one part I found interesting from the WSJ report on the topic was their carefulness regarding pulling the trigger prematurely. While the FDA is trying to decrease the attractiveness of menthol, they’re strategically playing a sympathetic long term game with smokers.

As they and everyone knows, quiting smoking is a difficult task and suddenly prohibiting many peoples go-to fix would be cruel and possibly cause more harm than good.

>FDA officials—who want to curb use among youth while still encouraging adult cigarette smokers to switch to less harmful products like e-cigarettes—decided not to restrict sales of mint and menthol e-cigarettes because they didn’t want to create a situation in which cigarettes were more attractive to smokers who prefer menthol, senior agency officials said. [1]

[1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-propose-ban-of-menthol-c...