It wouldn't change anything for you, Two Band Tom.If this does in fact go through, the Cigar industry is going to get verrrrry boring pretty quick.
Not necessarily true. It depends how you determine what a "free cigar" is. You pay a fee to go to IPCPR through your dues, so in an is sense you are paying for those cigars. There are ways around that part of the regulation from what I understand.It will be the last year cigar makers can hand out free samples without breaking Federal laws!
Vapes and e-cigs have absolutely no tobacco in them. (There is a subset known as nets that do, but that is secondary.) Yet they are being regulated solely based on the presence of nicotine. So, yeah when they use that logic it is completely possible to throw premium cigars in there.Not that I place a ton of credit in Brian Glynn, he does certainly seem shaken up here:
But I wholeheartedly agree with @Senor Perfecto. There is still time to reverse this thing. A good start would be to write your local Congressional representative because the House can amend these regulations. This is clearly an overreach by the FDA. They cannot throw 'Premium Cigars' under the same blanket regulations and legislation as E-cigarettes, vapes, and machine-rolled flavored cigars.
What's a positive story about vaping? That someone enjoyed it? I think the same can be said of cigars... or heroin...They don't care about reality on the ground. The are ideological zealots. I was in this from the beginning on the baking side. The FDA was actively seeking stories of negative experiences with electronic cigarettes while dismissing positive stories as anecdotes. They were also actively seeking negative research and calling positive research biased or unscientific.
Really comes down to the state your talking about. 64oz growlers were illegal until like last year in FL because of BMC pull in the state. The same BS has also created the food truck/brewery scene. It takes nonstop lobbying and fighting down here granted some states are more supportive. I don't know that the little guys in the cigar biz have enough power or money to really take on this scale of a fight. I sure hope so though.I was just reading an article about the craft beer industry. The big corporate producers tried to use their political power to enforce tough regulations on small brewers. But the craft industry adjusted and is now thriving. I hope the same is the case here.
And therein lies the problem. Philip Morris isn't having that. Now we have this.No, that people were actually getting off of cigarettes with personal vaporizers.
Lol! The common-sense approach would've been to simply exempt 'Premium Cigars' and fucking regulate everything else. But why the FDA went after all 'Premium Cigars' produced post February 15, 2007 makes absolutely no fucking sense to me. My only explanation is that STG (General Cigar) and Imperial Tobacco (Altadis) wanted this regulation in order to completely eliminate all competition, thereby forcing consumers to buy cigars exclusively from them. Follow the money. The other thing that perplexes me: TAA and CRA have been in Washington D.C. trying to broker this thing for the last three years. How could they not explain to those idiots on the Hill that 'Premium Cigars' pose absolutely no threat to our youth, and that they are merely a luxury for adults who work their asses off everyday and pay $.30 of every dollar they earn to keep these moronic regulators employed!!! The FDA, I might add, allows Monsanto to poison us with GMOs! So what, FDA, I can't enjoy a fine cigar at the end of the day, but I can go to the grocery store and buy tomatoes that might mutate my cells? Lol! Such disgusting, disgraceful hypocrisy. That's all we get nowadays from Washington D.C. All day, every day.I fuckin wish we could just overthrow those morons that make these ridiculous rules.
+1, while it is bad we need to remember we have time to change this. The key thing is instead of Complaining about it, the cigar community needs to come together and ACT! if your not a CRA member join now. Also if you work in any facet of the cigar industry, factory, B&M, marketing, distribution etc. call your local rep and let them know that premium cigars should be exempt cause if not you loose your job. The sky isn't falling yet, just a couple dark clouds rolling in but if we pull together as a community we can clear away those clouds and let the sun shine in.There's a lot of this Chicken Little, the sky is falling, talk going around. This is only one step in a long process. The FDA is not going after businesses, and if it can be demonstrated that the proposed regulations are going to harm businesses that provide a product to adult consumers, that will change the regulations.
This isn't the end of anything. We don't even know many of the specifics yet. Let's wait a while before we sound the air horns.
Yea man. I pay my own health insurance. I give them .30 cents of every dollar I make. Dafuq they passing bills like this for? I think I'm going to stop paying income tax. They can do whatever they want to do, then so can I.Lol! The common-sense approach would've been to simply exempt 'Premium Cigars' and fucking regulate everything else. But why the FDA went after all 'Premium Cigars' produced post February 15, 2007 makes absolutely no fucking sense to me. My only explanation is that STG (General Cigar) and Imperial Tobacco (Altadis) wanted this regulation in order to completely eliminate all competition, thereby forcing consumers to buy cigars exclusively from them. Follow the money. The other thing that perplexes me: TAA and CRA have been in Washington D.C. trying to broker this thing for the last three years. How could they not explain to those idiots on the Hill that 'Premium Cigars' pose absolutely no threat to our youth, and that they are merely a luxury for adults who work their asses off everyday and pay $.30 of every dollar they earn to keep these moronic regulators employed!!! The FDA, I might add, allows Monsanto to poison us with GMOs! So what, FDA, I can't enjoy a fine cigar at the end of the day, but I can go to the grocery store and buy tomatoes that might mutate my cells? Lol! Such disgusting, disgraceful hypocrisy. That's all we get nowadays from Washington D.C. All day, every day.
I wish it were that easy for me! I've been going at this since 2009. Never keep a huge stash, right now it's the biggest it's ever been with around 400 sticks, but hot damn. I love this hobby too much to just give up.When they shut the doors on the little guys that's when I stop buying cigars! Smoke my stock pile and move onto another hobby sad but f-them!!
Thank you so much , now feel so much better ...BOTL - The cigar industry is NOT DEAD. We are looking at "regulation"--not "prohibition."
Will there be changes to come? YES. Will you be able to walk into a tobacconist and purchase/smoke a cigar? YES. Will we need to adapt to the changes to come? YES. Will we manage to thrive? YES.
Is Crowned Heads going anywhere? NO!
Cheers.
Jon Huber
Crowned Heads