Clear decision on tobacco question

Bridgeport leadership is showing great courage with a proposed ordinance that would end the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, to prevent yet another generation of our youth from becoming addicted to tobacco, from living with tobacco-related disease and dying because of their own tobacco use.

What has the impact of menthol cigarettes been on the urban community? Today, due to explicit racial targeting, almost 90 percent of African Americans who are addicted to tobacco smoke menthol cigarettes. African Americans are more likely to die of tobacco-related diseases than any other population in our nation. Tobacco use contributes to the three leading causes of death among African Americans: heart disease, cancer and stroke.

In this Bridgeport battle, it is the medical community, community leaders like the NAACP, grandmothers and kids fighting to pass this ordinance. Who opposes it? The opposition is led by the New England Convenience Store Association, a Massachusetts “advocacy” group that annually spends tens of thousands of dollars in Connecticut protecting the profits of their members.

This proposed ordinance truly boils down to a simple argument, with two clear sides. Do we prioritize protecting the health of this generation of kids so that we can hopefully avoid yet another generation of tobacco addiction, disease and death? Or do we instead choose to protect tobacco retailer profits, whose products, if used per manufacturer recommendations, are likely to eventually kill you? I beg Bridgeport leadership to choose wisely.

Amy Marshall Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders Bridgeport