Watching characters smoking on film often gives me cravings, but just seeing the words "menthol cigarettes" makes me want to run out and grab a pack. Thankfully, they're banned in Canada so it would be a long drive for me today. I'm not black, but most of the kids in my neighborhood were, and these ads certainly impacted us.

The article doesn't really dig into what's so bad about menthol. It makes the smoke feel cool, which provides sensory relief. But it's like drinking alcohol to feel warm -- it increases an individual's mental tolerance without doing a damned thing physically. It even seems to make the cigarettes more addictive, which strongly resonates with me, probably because they diminish the body's "stop that, it hurts" response. Clove cigarettes have a similarly numbing sensation (and delicious flavor). As a teen I couldn't understand why those were banned in some places... now I only wonder why menthols didn't get the axe when other flavors were banned in the US, though I've always harbored a suspicion about the brand of Obama's guilty pleasure.