Hey, gov, don’t do us any flavors: sheriffs
A top law enforcement group wants to stub out Gov. Hochul’s planned ban on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco and $1 tax hike on smokes — claiming it’ll fuel the black market, be hard to enforce and worsen policecommunity 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 sheriffs and others across the state — cited a study that found more than half of cigarettes smoked in the state are smuggled in, draining $1 billion in tax revenue and flouting tobacco regulations.
“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 to 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 marijuana while the city’s sheriff’s office struggles to stop smoke shops from illegally selling pot products, 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 scented marijuana merchandise. The state prohibits the sale of flavored vaping products.
Kehoe argues that cracking down on items that were previously “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 Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who was killed by an NYPD officer’s illegal chokehold in 2014 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.”
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal People-Stokes (D-Buffalo) 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 those supporting Hochul’s ban, arguing the tobacco industry has targeted the black community for decades with cancercausing menthol smokes.
Hochul also proposed hiking the tax on a pack of cigarettes to $5.35 from $4.35.
Spokeswoman Hazel CramptonHays said the governor “is leading the way to a tobacco-free generation to reduce youth smoking and prevent senseless deaths.”
The proposed ban is projected to cut the number of young people smoking by 9%, preventing 22,000 kids from becoming smokers.