Can Premium Cigars be Saved from the Dire Threat of FDA Regulations?It's time to be brutally honest: premium cigars are facing the greatest threat ever encountered in the form of FDA regulation. The FDA has publicly declared its intent to regulate premium cigars as part of the "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," and the consequences are substantial: the potential outcomes would be downright ruinous for premium cigar smokers, retail tobacconists, and mail order cigar companies alike. Readers of Smoke are already well aware of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a federal law that was signed in 2009 that charges the Food and Drug Administration with regulating the tobacco industry. While cigars are considered tobacco products under the act, it didn't automatically apply to cigars. However, the gears have now been put into motion for the FDA to issue a regulation "activating" its oversight of cigars. And once it does, all hell would break loose, since the same regulations that currently apply to cigarettes (and are constantly evolving and becoming more restrictive each year) would then be in force for cigars. There is no way to understate how devastating this would be to those who enjoy cigar smoking. The FDA could, without any further permission, consider and implement the following regulations, and indeed under its 2009 mandate, it has every incentive to do just that, making them likely threats:
In order to succeed, at least 100 congressmen and 20 senators will need to vote in favor of the respective bills in order to ensure their passage, and this will only happen if their constituents - you, the cigar smoking public and consumers - explicitly ask that they support these bills. Cigar Rights of America (you are a member already, aren't you?) has made it incredibly easy. Take action now by visiting cigarrights.org where you can easily fill in a form that contacts your senators and congressmen individually. Cigar manufacturers and retailers throughout the industry believe this is the best shot we have at saving cigars from certain doom. As recently as September of 2011, the FDA issued an "Advance notice of proposed rule making" regarding the "Non-Face-to-Face Sale and Distribution of Tobacco Products and Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing of Tobacco Products." If the FDA regulates cigars, a ban on non-face-to-face tobacco sales would mean no mail order or internet-based cigar sales, and the complete demise of retailers that specialize in that format of retail sales. The FDA continues to wrap its grip around tobacco; time is running out. Without the support of cigar smokers everywhere, this crucial effort can't count on congressional support. - E.E.H.
SMOKE 2011, Issue 3  |