What's Menthol Got to Do With It?

 A two-part lesson curriculum on menthol products

Our Menthol Curriculum, which is part of the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit, is a two-part lesson evidence-informed curriculum on menthol nicotine/tobacco products and how they are marketed to attract youth, people of color, and LGBTQ+ youth. The Stanford REACH Lab created this curriculum in collaboration with our Youth Action Board, educators, healthcare providers, and scientists across the U.S.

Introduction to the Lesson and General Information

Every lesson provides activities, online quiz games, worksheets, presentations resources, and other materials aimed at helping young people understand what menthol tobacco is, what it does to the body, and how menthol tobacco is purposely targeting YOU.

These 2 lessons are reinforced outside of the classroom with follow-up discussion guides that provide open-ended questions and activities for youth to discuss various e-cigarette and cannabis-related topics with a trusted adult and/or peer, opening dialogue between youth and adults.

 

The goals of this curriculum are for adolescents to:

Identify the marketing tactics tobacco companies use to sell menthol tobacco products.

Discuss the impacts of the tobacco industry on the Black community.

Examine the addictive effects of menthol tobacco products, the use of nicotine, and nicotine's effects on melanin.

Ways to amplify my voice through advocacy and community change

The history of big tobacco marketing schemes to get consumers from the Black community

Practice refusal strategies and taking a stance against tobacco companies!