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DC CALLS IT QUITS • 2026

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A Historical Look

At Tobacco in the United States

And in Washington, DC

Dr. Carla Williams

Associate Professor of Medicine &

Public Health

Howard University

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVG9fAy_frI&t=1s

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FOUR CENTURIES

Tobacco Fields to the Wilson Building

1614

Rolfe’s tobacco becomes Virginia’s first cash crop

1619

First recorded Africans arrive as tobacco’s labor demands grow

1622–46

Native Displacement: Anglo-Powhatan Wars drive tribes from tobacco lands

1661–62

Virginia codifies hereditary, race-based slavery

1700s

Expansion Pressure: soil-depleting tobacco drives clearing of Indigenous land

1777

Tobacco pledged to France helps finance the Revolution

1839

A tired, enslaved person accidentally creates Bright leaf tobacco

1861–65

Cash – the New King:

Southern planters want free labor; resist switching from tobacco to food

1865–1900

Reconstructed Economy:

automatic roller introduced; manufacturing decreases farm profits

1933

New Deal controls tobacco acreage, favoring big growers

1964

Surgeon General first links smoking to disease

1965

Warning labels required on every pack

1970

Congress bans TV & radio cigarette ads

1990

Philadelphia Black coalition defeats “Uptown” menthol brand

1998

Master Settlement Agreement — DC is a party

2006

DC goes smoke-free indoors

2009

FDA gains authority over tobacco

2013

DC smoke-free parks, playgrounds & bus stops

2018

DC Tobacco 21 — a year before federal T21

2021

DC bans flavored tobacco, including menthol

Sources: NPS; virginiaplaces.org; World History Encyclopedia; CDC; SourceWatch (Uptown); Truth Initiative; DC DBH; DCist; NCpedia; Founders Online; O’Connor, Political Reconstruction of American Tobacco (Fordham UP).

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Follow the line with me — left to right, back across, and forward again. [ROW 1] In 1614 John Rolfe's tobacco becomes Virginia's first cash crop. It's a labor-hungry, land-hungry plant. In 1619 the first recorded Africans arrive. Two colonial impacts matter here. Native Displacement: the land grab for tobacco provoked the Anglo-Powhatan Wars, which displaced the region's Native nations. By 1661 and 1662, Virginia had written hereditary, race-based slavery into law. And Expansion Pressure: tobacco strips nutrients from the soil in just a few seasons, so planters constantly cleared new acreage — fueling continuous expansion onto Indigenous land. Stolen land, stolen labor. [ROW 2] The line keeps moving. In 1777 tobacco itself helps buy the Revolution — pledged to France's royal tobacco monopoly to unlock the loans that helped supply the Continental Army. By 1839, an enslaved worker named Stephen accidentally invents Bright leaf — a golden, flue-cured tobacco that remakes the Carolina-Virginia Piedmont. When the Civil War comes, planters won't let go of the cash crop: told to grow food instead, many keep growing tobacco, and the Confederacy goes hungry. Then Reconstruction rebuilds tobacco's whole political economy — manufacturers, fertilizer dealers, and warehouse operators gain enormous power, while the newly emancipated Black farmers and smallholding white growers who actually raise the leaf sink into debt. By 1933, the New Deal steps in with acreage controls and price supports — but the biggest growers benefit most. [ROW 3] Jump to the 20th century, when the correction finally organizes: the 1964 Surgeon General's report, warning labels in 1965, the broadcast ad ban in 1970. And don't skip 1990: when R.J. Reynolds tried to launch 'Uptown,' a menthol brand designed for Black smokers, a Philadelphia coalition of Black clergy and community leaders stopped it before it ever reached the market. Then 1998, the Master Settlement Agreement — and DC was a party. [ROW 4] And here's where the line comes home: DC smoke-free indoors in 2006, FDA authority in 2009, smoke-free parks and bus stops in 2013, Tobacco 21 in 2018 — a year before the federal law — and in 2021, DC's ban on flavored tobacco including menthol. Four centuries, one line, and the direction of the arrow is up to us. [~7 min]

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THE LONG ARC

Four Centuries of DMV Tobacco History

1600s

Tobacco becomes Virginia’s cash crop; Powhatan lands taken; slavery codified

1700s

Tobacco serves as currency; Georgetown founded (1751) as a Maryland tobacco port

1800s

L'Enfant worked the hogshead-tobacco rolling road into his city plan. What is this street called today?

2020s and Beyond

Cigarettes go mass-market; 1930s redlining concentrates disinvestment and later, retail density

Sources: WHO FCTC Secretariat; UICC (Dec 2025); UK Gov (Apr 29, 2026); Maldives Ministry of Health; ODPHP Healthy People 2030; CDC.

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DC Tobacco Free Coalition Founded in 2006– Led by Rolando Andrewn

1900s

2000s

DCTFC Marks 20 years of Community Advocacy!

Let me zoom out. By century: the 1600s built the plantation system. In the 1700s tobacco was literally money in the Chesapeake, and Georgetown — now part of DC — was founded in 1751 as a Maryland tobacco port. The 1800s moved from enslaved labor to sharecropping, and in 1881 a rolling machine made mass-produced cigarettes possible. The 1900s made them a mass-market product, while redlining decided which neighborhoods would be disinvested — and later, which would be saturated with tobacco retailers. [DECADES] Since 1960, every decade has had both force and counter-force: targeted menthol ads alongside the Surgeon General's report; billboards in Black neighborhoods alongside the Uptown victory; DC leading on flavors in 2021, and a federal menthol rule withdrawn in 2025. [2026] And where is the world now? The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — the first global health treaty — is over 20 years old with 183 Parties, and global tobacco use has fallen from about 29 percent to about 20. The U.S. signed it in 2004 but has never ratified it. At its November 2025 meeting, the Parties encouraged bold, forward-looking endgame measures. The Maldives' generational ban took effect last November, and this April the UK made it law that no one born on or after January 1, 2009 can ever be sold tobacco. Our own national goal, Healthy People 2030, is adult smoking at 6.1 percent. [~4 min]

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THE LONG ARC

2026 – Where is the World Heading?

Global tobacco use down from 29% to ~20%.
Conference of the Parties (COP11) urges “forward-looking” endgame measures
Generational Proscriptions:

Maldives (2025)
UK (Signed April 2026)
Massachusetts (local laws at risk)

Healthy People 2030: cut U.S. adult smoking to 6.1%

Sources: WHO FCTC Secretariat; UICC (Dec 2025); UK Gov (Apr 29, 2026); Maldives Ministry of Health; ODPHP Healthy People 2030; CDC.

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Let me zoom out. By century: the 1600s built the plantation system. In the 1700s tobacco was literally money in the Chesapeake, and Georgetown — now part of DC — was founded in 1751 as a Maryland tobacco port. The 1800s moved from enslaved labor to sharecropping, and in 1881 a rolling machine made mass-produced cigarettes possible. The 1900s made them a mass-market product, while redlining decided which neighborhoods would be disinvested — and later, which would be saturated with tobacco retailers. [DECADES] Since 1960, every decade has had both force and counter-force: targeted menthol ads alongside the Surgeon General's report; billboards in Black neighborhoods alongside the Uptown victory; DC leading on flavors in 2021, and a federal menthol rule withdrawn in 2025. [2026] And where is the world now? The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — the first global health treaty — is over 20 years old with 183 Parties, and global tobacco use has fallen from about 29 percent to about 20. The U.S. signed it in 2004 but has never ratified it. At its November 2025 meeting, the Parties encouraged bold, forward-looking endgame measures. The Maldives' generational ban took effect last November, and this April the UK made it law that no one born on or after January 1, 2009 can ever be sold tobacco. Our own national goal, Healthy People 2030, is adult smoking at 6.1 percent. [~4 min]

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The People Behind the Numbers

45,000

Black Americans die from tobacco-related illness every year

8 in 10

Black adult smokers use menthol, vs. 2 in 10 white adult smokers

3×

more tobacco retailers in disinvested urban neighborhoods than nearby suburbs

Source: Center for Tobacco Research & Intervention (CTRI), UW–Madison, ctri.wisc.edu; Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

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Health Justice

“Health justice permanently corrects the conditions that have allowed health disparities, inequities, and injustice to arise and persist.”

-Carla Williams (2021)

UNOPPOSED FORCES

Profit, targeting, and disinvestment can continue perpetually unless met with an external forces that shifts power and influence.

PUSHING BACK

Research, litigation, legislation, and community leadership are the counter forces that change the status quo

Framework: Dr. Carla Williams, Howard University Cancer Center — adapted from Newton’s First Law of Motion.

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Owned by the Community

Policy alone doesn’t correct an unbalanced force. Durable change requires:

Directly impacted residents leading the advocacy
Local data and local voices shaping local policies
Enforcement aimed at sellers and products, not people
Residents as partners, not problems
Cessation support that meets people where they are

Philadelphia, 1990

R.J. Reynolds planned to test-market “Uptown,” a menthol cigarette designed for Black smokers, during Black History Month. A coalition of Black clergy and community leaders organized, rallied, and refused. The brand was withdrawn before it ever launched.

Sources: SourceWatch, “Uptown cigarettes”; WHYY; Kellogg School of Management case study (2006).

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The Federal and

Legal Landscape

Andrew (Drew) Tardiff

Senior Staff Attorney

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

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The Federal and Legal Landscape

September 2026

Drew Tardiff | Senior Staff Attorney | Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

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About Us

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids �is the leading advocacy organization working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the United States and around the world.

Through our Global Health Advocacy Incubator, we tackle other critical public health challenges across the globe – including food and nutrition policy, injury and overdose prevention, and building resilient and equitable health systems.

Our vision is a healthier and more equitable future for all.

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Key Federal Responsibilities

Review of Premarket Tobacco Product Applications (PMTAs)

Denying applications for new tobacco products that don’t meet the statutory public health standard -- “appropriate for the protection of the public health”

Enforcement

Inspections
Civil monetary penalties (CMPs)
Injunctions
Criminal enforcement (with DOJ)

Provide Health Information

Graphic warnings
“The Real Cost”
“Tips From Former Smokers”

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Review of Tobacco Product Applications

Many successes defending marketing denial orders

FDA v. Wages & White Lion (S. Ct. 2025)

FDA is releasing less information to explain its authorizations

“Director’s Summaries” replacing Technical Project Lead Reviews

Legal challenges to FDA’s review process

C Store Depot v. FDA (11^th Cir.)
Helix Innovations v. FDA (N.D. Tex.)

Legal challenges to the length of time it’s taking FDA to complete those reviews

Schwartz E-Liquid v. FDA (D.D.C.)
NJOY v. FDA (W.D. La. 2026)

Some significant public health wins in court, but there’s cause for concern.

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Enforcement�

FDA’s civil monetary penalties have been found unconstitutional – and FDA agrees

Texas Tobacco Barn v. FDA (5th Cir. 2026)
Letter from the Solicitor General to the Speaker of the House of Representatives
D&A Business Investments v. FDA (D.C. Cir.)

“Enforcement Guidance” is permitting unauthorized products to enter and remain on the market

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids v. FDA (D. Md.)

Other pending cases may negatively impact enforcement

Tobacco companies are looking for ways to keep their unauthorized products on the market

FDA is limiting its ability to enforce against unauthorized products.

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Provide Health Information

Graphic warnings rule is 15 years overdue

The rule complies with the First Amendment
But an appellate court said FDA likely lacks authority to “adjust” the number of warnings from nine to eleven
And another court found procedural errors

Government reorganization is impacting other educational activities

State of New York v. Kennedy (D.R.I.)
FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products has been largely restored
CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health is entirely nonfunctional

Insufficient information is going out to the public about the dangers of tobacco.

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For more information please contact:

atardiff@tobaccofreekids.org

Thank You!

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Tobacco Control

and Policy in DC

Liz Furgurson

COO

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

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Tobacco Control

Policy in DC

Current landscape, progress, remaining challenges and opportunities for a tobacco-free future

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Tobacco’s toll in the District

A low citywide prevalence masks profound inequities

8.5%

48,400 adults

who smoke in DC

800

District residents killed by smoking each year

$454 million

annual health care costs

$101.5 million

covered by Medicaid

$933.4 million

annual productivity losses

In some wards, smoking prevalence remains above 20%

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DC’s tobacco control framework

Smoke-free protections

Workplaces, restaurants, bars and public spaces

Tobacco 21

Sales prohibited to people under age 21

Flavor prohibition

Menthol, mint, flavored products and synthetic nicotine

Taxation and licensing

Cigarette excise tax plus retailer and wholesaler permits

Electronic smoking-device sales are restricted within ¼ mile of middle and high schools

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DC has often acted ahead of the nation

2006–07

Smoke-free law

Restaurants and workplaces first, followed by bars and nightclubs

2016–17

Early Tobacco 21

Council acted before the federal requirement

2018

High cigarette tax

Among the highest state cigarette taxes in the country

2021–26

Flavor law and permits

Menthol included;

new permit system strengthens market data

Strong laws created the foundation.

Better implementation must now deliver their full value.

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The central challenge is enforcement

Strong laws protect health only when retailers comply

For the first years of the flavor law, enforcement relied largely on complaints through DLCP. Prohibited flavored products remained available in stores.

The move to DC Health is promising

Proactive inspections

Reliable monitoring

Meaningful consequences

Each requires adequate, protected resources

Enforcement is improving. Advocates must help sustain it.

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The nicotine marketplace keeps changing

Emerging products

New designs and synthetic nicotine can outpace regulation

Youth marketing

Products and promotion continue to evolve

Smoke-free exemptions

Tobacco and hookah establishments may pose future challenges

Persistent disparities

Predatory marketing and structural inequity concentrate harm

Cessation access

Regulation must be paired with meaningful support for people who want to quit

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The industry keeps reinventing itself. Public health policy must keep pace.

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Coalition priorities forward

1

Restrictions on age to purchase

2

Fund enforcement of the flavor prohibition and smoke-free laws

3

Address retailer density

Modernize laws for emerging nicotine products

Reconsider exemptions that weaken protections

Expand cessation access and public education

Use independent data to measure impact and disparities

Independent evidence matters when industry-supported reports challenge public health policy.

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The next question: what would a tobacco endgame look like in DC?

Substantially reduce the availability and sale of addictive commercial tobacco products over time

Protect people

Focus on communities that have borne the greatest burden

Protect the environment

Reduce cigarette butts, disposable vapes, toxic waste and contamination

Protect our progress

Close the implementation gaps

Move beyond incremental regulation

For decades, tobacco control has focused on regulating where tobacco can be used, who can buy it, how it can be marketed, how much it costs and what can be sold. Those policies have saved lives. Now we should ask whether our ultimate goal is simply to regulate the epidemic or to end it. What would a tobacco endgame look like in DC? How could we substantially reduce the availability and sale of addictive commercial tobacco products over time while protecting communities that have borne the greatest burden? The environmental toll also matters, including cigarette butts, disposable vapes, plastic waste and contamination. Our job is to protect the progress, close the gap between passing laws and implementing them, and think beyond incremental regulation. The question for the next decade is how we dramatically reduce, and ultimately end, the toll of commercial tobacco in the District.

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Q&A

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THANK YOU!

Stay Connected

@TobaccofreeDC

www.dctfc.org

dctfc1@gmail.com

DC CALLS IT QUITS • 2026