Backers of menthol cigarette ban vow to keep up the fight, but concede it will be a long battle

WASHINGTON — Advocates of a federal ban on menthol cigarettes have spent the better part of the last decade trying everything — from federal lawsuits to holding mock funerals outside the White House — to convince Washington policymakers to remove the minty substance from cigarettes.

Now, it seems, advocates may just have to sit around and wait.

STAT spoke to several of the leading advocacy groups pushing for a federal ban on menthol about what comes next after HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s announcement Friday that regulators will need “significantly more time” before finalizing the Food and Drug Administration’s 2022 proposal to ban the substance after receiving backlash from certain civil rights and criminal justice reform groups.

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