My mother smoked menthol cigarettes. Two-plus packs a day. Salem was her brand, just like Betty Draper on TV’s “Mad Men.” A cigarette smog constantly enveloped the interior of our house, and ashtrays and silent butlers were always overflowing. The wallpaper was stained with nicotine. Rivers of brown flowed when we’d wash the windows.

In her later years, after my dad passed away, Mom, who never drank alcohol or got a driver’s license, and I would take day trips to Seabrook, N.H., every couple of weeks. She’d treat me to lunch using the money she saved by buying copious cartons of Salems across the border.

At her doctor’s insistence, she tried to quit. Over and over, she tried to quit. She’d been smoke-free for about three weeks when the lung cancer diagnosis arrived and hospice care began. “I miss smoking, Billy dear. I like it, and think I’ll start smoking again. I’m going to die anyway. Will you drive me up to Seabrook?” Her son, the enabler, said “sure.”

All that nicotine must have shocked the cancer cells, because she lived for another four years. She was 72 when she died.

I’ve never smoked, nor have my two sisters. Mom’s early-morning coughing fits while puffing away turned us off. My dad started smoking when he was in the South Pacific with the Navy during WWII. He paid 5 cents for a pack of unfiltered Camels at the commissary. When he returned to civilian life, he quit cold turkey. “I’m not paying 25 cents for a pack of cigarettes. That’s highway robbery,” he’d say.

Anyway, the youth vaping crisis has many states and government agencies taking aim at flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. An unknown vaping-related illness has sickened nearly 2,000 people nationwide and led to at least 37 deaths. In response, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a public health emergency and imposed a four-month ban on all electronic cigarettes, and a bill has been filed to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. In protest, many convenience store owners in the Bay State shut their places of business for a day last week. 

The Food and Drug Administration plans to propose a ban on menthol cigarettes as part of its aggressive campaign against flavored e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes. And the Trump administration is expected to announce the details of a possible ban on flavored e-cigarette and vaping products this week. 

The number of smokers in the United States had declined from 42 percent in 1965 to less than 17 percent today, due to health warnings and high excise taxes. Big Tobacco likely saw nicotine-addicting E-cigarettes with kid-friendly flavors as a way to get those numbers rising.

I’m not a smoker, but if you’re 21 and older, you have the right to do whatever you want  as long as it’s within the law. If a person chooses to smoke after being bombarded with health warnings and those sickening TV commercials where cancer “survivors” speak through a hole in their throat, that’s his or her call.

Let’s say menthol cigarettes are banned in Massachusetts. What would seniors like my mom do? Have their children or health aides drive them to Seabrook where there’s no ban, of course. What if every state bans menthol cigarettes? If you’re hooked, you’ll find a way to satisfy your craving. Some neighborhood creep with a backpack might even become your mom’s or grandchild’s pusher. 

Health experts say menthol makes a cigarette seem less harsh, but it makes the body absorb more nicotine, making it easier to start smoking and harder to quit. Menthol was first added to cigarettes in the 1920s, and Big Tobacco has targeted African-Americans since the ’50s. Some consider Newports and Kools as part of black culture, and that community has been calling for restrictions for years. According to the N.A.A.C.P.’s Youth Against Menthol campaign, about 85 percent of African-American smokers age 12 and older smoke menthol cigarettes, compared with 29 percent of white smokers. Canada has imposed a ban on menthol cigarettes, and the European Union’s ban starts next year. 

I think the ban should target only vape flavors. Adult smokers and their menthol cigarettes should be exempt. The risks are well known. I know full well there’s too much sugar and fat in chocolate chip cookies and that bourbon isn’t good for my health; I ain’t giving them up.

My mom’s nicotine addiction likely caused her death. She started smoking at Emerson College in the early 1950s. Peer pressure and advertisements touting the healthful aspects of tobacco might have convinced her to light up. She enjoyed her frequent cigarette breaks. 

Let adults make their own decisions. This youth vaping crisis is horrific, but using that to ban menthol cigarettes is nothing more than a smokescreen.