Tobacco News

Several tobacco categories have already come under the microscope of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the general consensus seems to be that cigars’ turn is coming. Insiders caution that the cigar industry needs to come together as a whole now, before the FDA acts.
“The politics of tobacco is the politics of diversion. We are too easy of a target. We set ourselves up for that because we never fought back,” said Glynn Loope, executive director of Cigar Rights of America (CRA). Ream more »

Pinar del Río, Cuba, Jan 25 (Prensa Latina) Far from expressing any vanity, Hector Luis Prieto, the world’s youngest Habano Man (the Cuban cigar is called an “Habano), says he feels optimistic about the results of the tobacco harvest in his legendary plantation in western Cuba.

After concluding the picking of covered tobacco, he announced that the volumes exceed those of previous harvests, in spite of delays caused by the inclemency of the weather.
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Government regulators and their enablers in Congress, always on the prowl to target industries for ever-more oppressive regulations and higher taxes, are now focusing on the venerable “good cigar” eloquently extolled by Rudyard Kipling and many other connoisseurs of a “good smoke.”

Since the mid-1960s, tobacco has been one of the big-government nannies’ favorite targets. While anti-tobacconists have scored only sporadic victories in the courts over the past few decades, that is partly due to the fact that until 2009, when Congress passed the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,” tobacco was not lawfully regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Maryland health advocates are lauding Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposal to increase the state’s cigar tax, but critics say such an increase would create another financial burden for consumers and business owners.

Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat, proposed a state budget Wednesday that would raise the 15-percent excise tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and other noncigarette tobacco items — a group collectively known as other tobacco products (OTP) — to 70 percent. Ream more »

While the music may sound relaxing, Zaffaroni is angry at a proposal in Governor Martin O’Malley’s budget, that would increase the tax on cigars and other tobacco products to match the higher tax rate that the stats imposes on cigarettes.

“Tobacco is already paying a much higher rate,” Zaffaroni told WBAL News.

“I’m already paying an additional 15% plus 10% to the federal government. Now you want to raise it to 66%. Last year you wanted to make it 95%. Are you insane governor?”
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If you think the economy is tough in Europe and the United States, consider Cuba, where the average monthly salary is a piddling $20. True, $20 goes further in Cuba than it does in a lot of other countries, but it’s still a meager sum and not remotely enough to survive on.
With so little income from legitimate business, many businessmen are forced to turn to the black market just to keep a roof over their heads and feed their families. The worst part is that there is no solution in sight to the extreme impoverishment which fuels this underground economy. Ream more »

THE federal government is seeking feedback on its plans for plain packaging of products other than cigarettes, including cigars and loose-leaf tobacco.
Labor is proposing to amend its tobacco plain-packaging regulations when parliament resumes in February to include additional specifications for non-cigarette items.

“We must challenge perceptions that cigars are in any way more glamorous, or a less harmful alternative, to cigarettes,” Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said.
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If there’s such a thing as an essential Brooklyn film, it might well be “Smoke.” The 1995 drama, co-directed by Wayne Wang and Park Slope novelist Paul Auster, was filmed mostly around the corner of 16th Street and Prospect Park West, and is vibrant with neighborhood personality.
Inside the Brooklyn Cigar Co., Augie Wren (Harvey Keitel) engages a diverse and loquacious clientele, acting as a pivot around which other narratives revolve, primarily one involving melancholy neighborhood writer Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) and his relationship with a teenage street kid (Harold Perrineau Jr.) whom he takes under his wing. Ream more »

For lovers of fine cigars, Belicoso Cigar Lounge in Orland Park has been a smoky oasis in an otherwise smoke-free village.

But the village and the shop’s owner are locked in a legal dispute in federal court, with Orland Park yanking Belicoso’s business license and the owner claiming ethnic discrimination.

Attorneys for both sides were in court Tuesday, with the shop seeking a temporary restraining order to stave off the license revocation. The judge indicated that she will issue a ruling at a later date, said Nabih Ayad, Belicoso’s lawyer. Ream more »

When the city rolled out its sweeping smoking ban this summer, eager to make the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights list of smoke-free cities, the winners and losers were obvious. The winners: bars that already had sizable patios, cigar bars, and, many would argue, anyone with a set of lungs looking to imbibe clear of a carcinogenic cloud. Unaffected Alamo Heights’ bar and restaurant district sits ready to catch cigarette-puffing refugees aching for a drag while they sip their cocktails. And despite inclusion in early drafts of the ordinance, VFW posts, the River Walk, and the Shrine of Texas Liberty itself all escaped the ban. But if you’re an everyday pub, sports bar, or dive without a patio or enough space to build one: tough luck.
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