Posted on 06/23/2014 8:07:01 AM PDT by PoloSec
During Woodrow Wilson's presidency, Vice President Thomas Marshall declared, "What this country needs is a good 5 cent cigar."
The Obama administration is striving to update that noble aspiration. The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed sweeping regulations that could make it far more difficult for Americans to purchase new cigars that cost less than $10.
The FDA unleashed a regulatory barrage against electronic cigarettes, hookahs, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products. But cigar smokers could suffer the worst from the new decrees.
The FDA proposes banning cigar sales to minors, free samples, almost all tobacco vending machines and limiting cigar ads. The biggest disruption would stem from compelling manufacturers to secure "premarket approval" before selling any cigars not sold before Feb. 15, 2007.
The agency is notorious for long delays in approving new drugs, and it would likely foot-drag even worse for products it despised. An FDA economic analysis estimated the new mandate could severely impact up to 77% of all cigars. The enormous costs for premarket approval could also minimize new tobacco products down the road.
Industry opposition has been a bit muted because the FDA indicated that it might exempt "premium cigars" from the new mandates. But the FDA is charging forward. The vast majority of cigars consumed in the U.S. are machine rolled. But the FDA suggests that any handmade cigar that costs less than $10 is not "premium."
At first glance, the FDA's definition sounds like a caricature invented by Occupy Wall Street activists. Most handmade cigars sell for much less than $10. Does the FDA believe that only people who pay exorbitant amounts for cigars should be allowed to spend their money as they please?
BLS inflation calculator claims that 5¢ in 1913 equals $1.20 in 2014; conversely, $10 in 2014 becomes 42¢ in 1913. (The calculator goes back only as far as the year the Federal Reserve was created.)
Ah well. Expect a big upswing in “cigar smuggling”.
Uhhh...ahem...I think it has been pretty steady;-)
My online tabacconist has already sent out an email about this. It would effectively raise the prices of good cigars (90+ ratings) to $10 instead of the $2-4 I pay now, and probably put thousands of Caribbean and Central Americans out of work, which would encourage them to come here.
Organized crime could soon be booming if they started selling bootlegged cigars.
So what will a used one cost?
New old stock would sell out quickly
This is government busybodies imposing a tax. At least they do not want a ban. Banning would kill this golden goose.
But notice how no one is saying that marijuanna smoking is as bad if not worse for you than tobacco? It’s like there is no smoke involved with pot!
The occasional cigar is one of the few vices I have left. At $10 a pop, I'll have to kiss that one goodbye.
The general hazards of smoke go with anything smoked; in fact typical marijuana smoke has more “tar” than typical tobacco smoke. Balanced against that danger is the usual practice of inhaling less of the smoke produced by a particular marijuana cigarette, and using smaller cigarettes. Chainsmoking is not usually a vice associated with marijuana; most users smoke till satisfied with the effect then stop, not doing it again for hours.
It’s kind of hard to talk about that without implying that I give a nod, wink to marijuana smoking. I’ve never had pot and I’ve never had reason to believe I’ve missed anything good. Maybe if I ever got into dire medical circumstances I might want it as a remedy, (and there are other ways to get it such as vaping) but not as a pleasure for its own sake.
Self rolled cigars might become the rage.
If this continues, only Bill Clintoon and the rich Daddy Warbuck$ will be able to buy a cigar and enjoy it.
Wonder how much money the Cigar makers in Cuba are donating to the rats to bring this about before they rejoin the world.
I could see “cigar kits” maybe even with pre formed slugs of pressed tobacco and papers.
My dog had been smuggling a cigar, but he dropped it in the yard.
Papers on cigars? Blasphemer!
Have you ever watched someone smoke pot? They take a big deep inhalation of the smoke, and hold it in their lungs. It enhances the saturation of the THC in the lungs/ blood. I have never seen someone do a big drag on a cigar, cigarette or pipe and hold the inhaled smoke n their lungs. Pot smokers? Almost every time.
I’ve also never seen a pothead amount to much of anything. With the exception of those born to wealth. But they had the money coming anyway/S
But again, most of the cigarette burns unconsumed if it is a single smoker. An entire crowd can share one “joint” in that fashion. The idea is, of COURSE, to get the THC. Not to keep being exposed to the smoke as smoke.
If any intoxicant walks away with someone, then that someone needs to wise up and walk away from the intoxicant. But between the habitually hooked and absolute abstainers there is much middle ground.
Mr. GG2 gets these great irregular cigars at the local smoke shop for $3.98. There are no visible defects we can ever see and they are really terrific quality.
During the Carter years, it was "What this country needs is a good 5 cent nickel."
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