White House drops plan to ban menthol cigarettes, WSJ reports

After the White House weighed the potential public-health benefits of banning menthol cigarettes, the Biden administration is reversing course on its plan to avoid the political risk of angering Black voters in an election year, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal’s Jennifer Maloney and Liz Essley Whyte. The administration is expected to announce its decision as soon as Friday afternoon, according to the sources. Publicly traded companies in the tobacco products space include Altria Group (MO), British American Tobacco (BTI), Imperial Brands (IMBBY) and Philip Morris (PM).