Cigars expected to be targeted by FDA regulation

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Dutch

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Nearly four years after it began regulating cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration is poised to extend its reach to a broader range of tobacco products. At the top of that list: cigars, which have experienced a boom in recent years even as cigarette sales have declined, in part because of growing popularity among young people.

Anti-tobacco advocates and industry representatives widely expect the agency to require changes in the marketing and manufacturing of cigars. But the central question remains: What kind of cigars will the FDA target, and how?

On one end of the spectrum are the hand-rolled Cohibas and Arturo Fuentes that stock the humidors of high-end cigar shops and are favored by aficionados who don’t blink at paying top dollar. On the other are the convenience-store brands that appeal primarily to young smokers, such as 59-cent blueberry Swisher Sweets, peach-flavored White Owl Cigarillos, Phillies Blunts Sour Apple and menthol Cheyenne “little cigars” that are barely distinguishable from cigarettes.

Public health experts and some anti-tobacco lawmakers are pressing the FDA to regulate all cigars, but they mostly worry about the inexpensive, flavored varieties that have proliferated in recent years. Such cigars “are marketed aggressively and have resulted in high school kids and young adults being twice as likely as their older counterparts to be cigar smokers,” the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said in a recent report.

Meanwhile, makers of “premium cigars” have been lobbying intensely in an effort to avoid being lumped in with the candy- and fruit-flavored, corner-store varieties. A bill on Capitol Hill, co-sponsored by dozens of lawmakers, would keep carefully defined “traditional large and premium” cigars out of the FDA’s reach, although its prospects remain uncertain.

“You don’t see a teenager with a $15 premium cigar sticking out of his mouth, standing on the corner,” said Bill Spann, president of the International Premium Cigar & Retailers Association. “Nobody’s ducking outside for a 15-minute cigar break. Nobody’s smoking two boxes of cigars a day. You don’t inhale them. And they are not marketed to, desired by or affordable to underage youth.”

The industry’s main trade association, the Cigar Association of America, which represents all kinds of cigar manufacturers, is pushing a simple message: One-size-fits-all regulation won’t work.

“All our products are different, so you should look at all of them differently,” said Craig Williamson, president of the cigar group.

The 2009 law that gave the FDA power to regulate cigarettes and several other types of tobacco also authorized it to broaden its jurisdiction to include other products, such as cigars, pipe tobacco and e-cigarettes. Late last year, the FDA said it would issue a proposal by April.

In the interim, cigarmakers have begun to brace for their first brush with government regulation and the changes that might bring. “It’s something we’ve been planning for,” said David Sylvia, a spokesman for Altria Group, the parent company of John Middleton, which manufactures the popular Black & Mild cigar brand and a variety of pipe tobaccos.

The FDA has yet to outline its plans, leaving plenty of speculation about whether the agency will regulate different cigars differently — without creating loopholes.

“If they can’t figure out a way to keep this thing from being gamed, then they basically shouldn’t make any exemptions,” said Richard A. Daynard, a Northeastern University law professor and president of its Public Health Advocacy Institute.

The 2009 tobacco control law banned candy and fruit flavorings in cigarettes, which had been shown to disproportionately appeal to young people. Some companies reacted by making small changes in the products, such as adding tobacco to the wrapper to help them meet the legal definition of cigars.

Another 2009 federal law put in place sharp tax increases on cigarettes and small cigars but spared larger cigars. In response, companies added weight to their products to qualify for the lower taxes.

Even as cigarette smoking decreased between 2000 and 2011, consumption of loose tobacco and cigars grew 123 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found that tax disparities prompted many smokers to switch from cigarettes to other products such as cigars.

In at least six states, including Maryland, youth cigar smoking now equals or surpasses cigarette smoking, according to numbers compiled by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids — a figure the group says underscores the urgency of FDA regulation.

Spann hopes that the FDA at least decides to exclude the small companies and storefronts that make and sell premium cigars — or that if the agency doesn’t, Congress will.

“There are 85,000 Americans working in or around the premium cigar market in America,” he said. “The government should be helping them, not trying to regulate them out of business.”

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said there is no evidence that the FDA intends to impose a host of onerous, unnecessary regulations on mom-and-pop manufacturers of large cigars. “They have bigger fights to fight,” he said.




http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cigars-expected-to-be-targeted-by-fda-regulation/2013/03/23/71105222-900e-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html?hpid=z3

 
This is comprehensive. I wish someone would right such about the probable regs FDA will impose on pipe tobacco.
 
Let's be honest...the kidos are not smoking the tobacco that comes in those cheap peachberryhaze cigars.
 
Let's also be honest. Divide and conquer works.

Not a single non cigarette tobacco user stood by the Marlboro man ..
Not a single cigar smoker stood by Mr Copenhagen and his MudJug.
Not a single pipe or 'real' cigar smoker will stand with Swisher Sweet.
Who's left to stand with you?
 
puros_bran":lokvf2fe said:
Let's also be honest. Divide and conquer works.

Not a single non cigarette tobacco user stood by the Marlboro man ..
Not a single cigar smoker stood by Mr Copenhagen and his MudJug.
Not a single pipe or 'real' cigar smoker will stand with Swisher Sweet.
Who's left to stand with you?
My point is that all this BS RE: taxing cigars to "save the children" is misguided. The kids are usually not using these flavored cheap cigars as a source of nicotine. They are using them to roll recreational product in. The FDA can twist the statistics about youth and cigars all they want. but in the end the tobacco is being left on the sidewalk in front of the convenience store and the young smoker is rolling up non-tobacco product while slouching in their car.

I don't care what type of tobacco someone smokes, as long as it is tobacco.
 
Yes and some smoke marijuana in pipes what's that have to do with government taxation. The point being tossing one segment under the bus is self destruction..
 
puros_bran":nt33d9c0 said:
Yes and some smoke marijuana in pipes what's that have to do with government taxation. The point being tossing one segment under the bus is self destruction..
I am not saying the government should tax cigars at a higher rate. I am saying that the government is misguided in taxing cigars if they want to reduce teen smoking. The reasoning they give for the increased regulation is not really reflective of teen smoking rates because they are not using the tobacco.

 
A better argument is: It's already illegal for underage youth to purchase tobacco products.
 
Every time I buy tobacco for my Mason jar collection I have to click on a little box that says I'm over 18 and then give my birthdate. Which is kinda funny whan I think about it.
 
You'd think with everything that is wrong in this country the government could find something more pressing to work on than MORE anti-tobacco legislation or government regulations. It's already illegal for minors to purchase tobacco which hasn't stopped them and neither will any regulations the FDA can impose. All it will do is make cigars more expensive (probably all cigars, regardless of what they say) and drive small cigar companies (think Miami) either out of business or out of this country.

Ed
 
You have people who just hate seeing someone enjoying themselves.
You have people who just hate seeing someone doing something they don't want to do.
You have people who see someone smoking and think that the smokers are killing THEM because of some biased/made up 'statistics'.
You have the government and insurance companies saying how much a smoker costs the tax payer and those paying for health insurance. They don't say how much dementia costs (projected one out of three people!!), how much diabetes (caused by obesity) costs which requires dialysis & kidney transplant, etc.
The government always needs more money. The less people who complain about the source of the tax money (meaning they aren't the ones paying it) combined with a source that has been made unpopular with the majority of the populace makes for some easily picked low hanging fruit.
Why do you think the NRA is so adamant about not accepting some regulations that would make sense?
 
Having smoked cigarettes and swisher sweets since I was 15 (finally stopped cigarette's at 26) kids will always find a way to get what is forbidden to them. I can distinctly remember my first real cigar, and how horrible I felt afterwards (I inhaled) the sad fact is that nobody will ever just say why they really want to regulate it, another source of income for the government. I'm sure we've all encountered "pipe tobacco" that was really just Roll Your Own cigarette tobacco relabeled to avoid that ugly cigarette tax. (this all applies to Indiana)
 
I think what's important is to recognize that tobacco is tobacco is tobacco so far as taxation and Uncle Sam go. That means if we don't defend the dude with the Swisher Sweet, pipes and premium cigars are next. It's all our problem.
 
MisterE":gbtnivwu said:
I think what's important is to recognize that tobacco is tobacco is tobacco so far as taxation and Uncle Sam go. That means if we don't defend the dude with the Swisher Sweet, pipes and premium cigars are next. It's all our problem.
I wholeheartedly agree MisterE! As much as a believe that cigarettes are the main reason that tobacco gets so much negative press, I also believe we have to stick together for freedom and the right to choose.

Let's compare the tobacco industry to the automotive industry. Both cause hundred's of thousands of deaths each year, yet you never much rhetoric about additional taxing of the automobile industry due to increased death and medical costs.

Doesn't an automobile have the potential to cause death to an innocent bystander, just as effectively as second hand smoke?
 
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