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FDA Releases Proposed Regulations

StogieNinja

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Frankly, what they announced is better than what I was expecting. We have an opportunity to have our voices heard, at least!
 

thejavaman

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America has turned into a "nanny state" and it's past the point of disconcerting. I'm a grown ass man and if I want to smoke cigars (or use any other tobacco product), I should be able to do it without the government interfering in any way, shape or form. I was also expecting far worse than what came out today. The CRA needs to start another round of heavy lobbying to make certain that at least premium cigars are exempt from this overreaching act. :argh:
 

Angry Bill

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How you liking Obamas change now?

Folks this is how some politicians feel they are elected to control our lives, but exempt themselves, I'm a lifetime member of the CRA. If you are not a member, then why aren't you, get involved, write to your elected officials, and tell them how opposed you are to this and the cost of more American jobs this will be.
 
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How you liking Obamas change now?

Folks this is how some politicians feel they are elected to control our lives, but exempt themselves, I'm a lifetime member of the CRA. If you are not a member, then why aren't you, get involved, write to your elected officials, and tell them how opposed you are to this and the cost of more American jobs this will be.
+1 :applause:
 

FamousTLo

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How you liking Obamas change now?

Folks this is how some politicians feel they are elected to control our lives, but exempt themselves, I'm a lifetime member of the CRA. If you are not a member, then why aren't you, get involved, write to your elected officials, and tell them how opposed you are to this and the cost of more American jobs this will be.
Angry Bill is fired up! Preach brother!
 

Angry Bill

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And for those that don't think it will cost American jobs, I offer you this. Cigars will be priced higher and harder for manufacturers to sell in the US. Which them affects shipping product to the US (shipping jobs), then retailers won't have product or will shut down completely as the prices will keep them from being competitive (more jobs) and manufacturers based out of the US may be forced to cease their lines ( more jobs). Reps, marketing companies, magazines, hotels for trade shows, tobacco growers in the US will all have job cuts.

So get involved gents.
 
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Last December, Mitch Zeller, head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, mentioned premium cigars and hinted that the category could be treated differently:

There’s one thing that I do want to add, especially about the so-called ‘premium cigar’ category. I have had a lot of meetings with a lot of parties from public health and consumer groups to various sectors of the tobacco industry including representatives of the premium cigar industry.
The message that the premium cigar interests have tried to deliver is that there are differences between products that sell for upwards of eight, nine, 10, 11 dollars a piece and are not sold in packages, kept in special climate-controlled facilities and that the consumer—and they say it’s only adult consumers—come and buy one, two, three at a time. So, we have gotten the messages that there maybe differences when it comes to premium cigars versus other cigars and the message is that FDA needs to take that into account into figuring out how they should be regulated
it is however not all good news. The FDA has stated it believe the outlines proposed in the deeming document would be the first step in regulating flavored tobacco. Part of that comes from extending its mandates into product categories like e-cigarettes and cigars, and other parts come from new disclosure and registration requirements.
- http://halfwheel.com/fda-announces-regulations-plans-premium-cigars-might-receive-exemption/54931


Is this info no longer good, and USA Today has updated stuff? Or is there still discrepancies in the reporting?
A little bit of both. HalfWheel's report includes that quote, from back in December, and the USA today piece was written before the FDA released the actual text at 9am this morning.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2014-09491.pdf This is the regulations actual text as it was released at 9am this morning (after my original post). In it, the FDA gives two options... Option 1 extends their oversight to all products except accessories. Option 2 extends their oversight to everything except premium cigars and accessories.

They define a "premium" cigar as those meeting the following:
1) Is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf
2) contains 100% leaf tobacco
3) contains primarily long filler tobacco
4) is made by combining manually the wrapper, filler, binder
5) has no filter, tip or non-tabacco mouthpiece and is capped by hand
6) has a retail price (after discounts and coupons) of no less than $10 per cigar
7) does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco
8) weights more than 6 pounds per 1000 units

These regulations are open for a 75 day comment window, at which time the FDA will select option 1 or option 2. There are lots of questions on pages 33-forward considering these 8 points, and if they should be included in the definition.

At the end of the day, the FDA could choose to move forward with option 1 and not care about the exemption, or they could change the requirements above. "Although the Agency is proposing a definition with respect to Option 2, FDA remains
concerned that any attempts to create a subset of premium cigars that are excluded from regulatory authority might sweep other cigar products under its umbrella."

In either case, if we want to this to end in our favor we need to take action. Hoping that the federal government makes the right decisions is not productive at all!
Another translation is that the $5 stick now is going to be priced at $10. All I'm hoping is that once I'm dead the fu**ing government is not able to stick it's long reaching arm into my casket!
 

3/5King

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I foresee online retailers setting up shop overseas. This way the laws wouldn't apply?? Like for say Famous Smoke moving their humi across the boarder and shipping internationally to the US?
 

mwlabel

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I foresee online retailers setting up shop overseas. This way the laws wouldn't apply?? Like for say Famous Smoke moving their humi across the boarder and shipping internationally to the US?
I haven't read the full document, but I'm assuming you're seeing a loophole here.
If that were the case, they could probably follow the Apple model, and set up their "headquarters" across the boarder for certain exemptions, but still operate primarily in the US.
 

StogieNinja

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They define a "premium" cigar as those meeting the following:
6) has a retail price (after discounts and coupons) of no less than $10 per cigar
8) weights more than 6 pounds per 1000 units!
Another translation is that the $5 stick now is going to be priced at $10. All I'm hoping is that once I'm dead the fu**ing government is not able to stick it's long reaching arm into my casket!
Geez. I missed that one... priced at over $10 to be considered premium? That's crazy. So a regular guy won't be able to afford regular cigar smoking anymore.

Also, Pt 8 is worrisome, and is 100% indicative of how little they understand the industry. "We're fine with a poser smoking a really expensive jawbreaker, but no petit coronas for you aficionados!" I'm not trying to disparage those who smoke big cigars, my main point is that it's generally aficionados who tend towards the smaller sticks -lanceros, petit coronas, etc. these days, so to say it has to be a large cigar to be a premium cigar just shows how little they understand.
 

3/5King

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They define a "premium" cigar as those meeting the following:
6) has a retail price (after discounts and coupons) of no less than $10 per cigar
8) weights more than 6 pounds per 1000 units!
Another translation is that the $5 stick now is going to be priced at $10. All I'm hoping is that once I'm dead the fu**ing government is not able to stick it's long reaching arm into my casket!
Geez. I missed that one... priced at over $10 to be considered premium? That's crazy. So a regular guy won't be able to afford regular cigar smoking anymore.

Also, Pt 8 is worrisome, and is 100% indicative of how little they understand the industry. "We're fine with a poser smoking a really expensive jawbreaker, but no petit coronas for you aficionados!" I'm not trying to disparage those who smoke big cigars, my main point is that it's generally aficionados who tend towards the smaller sticks -lanceros, petit coronas, etc. these days, so to say it has to be a large cigar to be a premium cigar just shows how little they understand.

#8 is not concerning. 6lbs at 1000 units is around 2.7grams. Coronas are twice that, even petite coronas probably register higher. They are trying to weed out cigarillos and the likes I'd assume.
 
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Option 2 extends their oversight to everything except premium cigars and accessories.

They define a "premium" cigar as those meeting the following:
1) Is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf
2) contains 100% leaf tobacco
3) contains primarily long filler tobacco
4) is made by combining manually the wrapper, filler, binder
5) has no filter, tip or non-tabacco mouthpiece and is capped by hand
6) has a retail price (after discounts and coupons) of no less than $10 per cigar
7) does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco
8) weights more than 6 pounds per 1000 units

I'm unclear on the oversight the federal government has on imports.

What I mean by that is they don't have jurisdiction to do a surprise inspection (or any inspection) of, let's say, the Drew Estate factory in Nicaragua.

So while they can not watch cigar assembly and therefor determine that DE is in fact not using any additives to the leaf on the wrapper, I am assuming they would have no choice but to randomly stop shipments and tear the cigars apart in an FDA lab? I really have no idea if that is what they do, I am trying to grasp how this would work.
 

D Quintero

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They define a "premium" cigar as those meeting the following:
6) has a retail price (after discounts and coupons) of no less than $10 per cigar
8) weights more than 6 pounds per 1000 units!
Another translation is that the $5 stick now is going to be priced at $10. All I'm hoping is that once I'm dead the fu**ing government is not able to stick it's long reaching arm into my casket!
Geez. I missed that one... priced at over $10 to be considered premium? That's crazy. So a regular guy won't be able to afford regular cigar smoking anymore.

Also, Pt 8 is worrisome, and is 100% indicative of how little they understand the industry. "We're fine with a poser smoking a really expensive jawbreaker, but no petit coronas for you aficionados!" I'm not trying to disparage those who smoke big cigars, my main point is that it's generally aficionados who tend towards the smaller sticks -lanceros, petit coronas, etc. these days, so to say it has to be a large cigar to be a premium cigar just shows how little they understand.
my sentiments exactly ...

being that Everyone is on the take , the best move i see is, and its worked before, that CRA cuts some bribe checks and have Boehner pass em out to congress.

God Bless Habanos
 
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The section to the proposed rule below shows that since the heavier regulations have been placed on cigarettes, the amount of cigar usage increased rapidly. It is trying to draw a conclusion that once cigarettes became harder to obtain, smokers switched over to cigars. That is completely ridiculous on so many levels.

So now that you guys made cigarettes 8 dollars a pack, smokers were like fuck this, and started smoking 10 dollar cigars!?



This substitution is evidenced in the recent trends regarding cigarette consumption
compared to the use of other combustible tobacco products (e.g., small and large cigars, pipe
tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco). For example, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) reported a 32.8 percent decrease in cigarette consumption between 2000 and
2011, while the consumption of non-cigarette combustible products increased from 15.2 billion
"cigarette equivalents" (i.e., small cigars and large cigars, and per-cigarette equivalents for pipe
tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco) to 33.8 billion--a 123.1 percent increase over the same time
period (Ref. 22). Pipe tobacco consumption during this period increased 482.1 percent, and
consumption of large cigars increased 233.1 percent (id.). This research suggests that recent
changes in consumption of non-cigarette combustible products, particularly increases in large
cigar and pipe tobacco use, are associated with a decline in cigarette consumption, and indicate
that certain cigarette smokers may switch to non-cigarette combustible products (id. at 567).
While researchers posited that this change in prevalence rates is likely due to the lower taxes
(and ultimately lower cost to the consumer) (id. at 566), the lack of regulation over certain
tobacco products may be a contributing factor. Without a common regulatory framework,
tobacco firms can exploit differences in regulatory requirements to drive consumers to different
product markets.
 
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