One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

One Step Forward

As a cigar smoker you can’t help but pay attention to the never-ending assault on our freedom to smoke cigars. So, when there is a nominally positive step, like was seen when a proposed smoking ban was narrowly defeated in Indianapolis, I am happy.

Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time before Indianapolis follows in the footsteps of so many other cities throughout America (and the rest of the world) and seriously restricts the rights of smokers.

Two Steps Back

Remember my post a couple of weeks ago about how the FDA had banned almost all flavored cigarettes (except menthol) and how this would probably lead to a total ban on all flavored tobacco products? If not then you should go back and read it because this is exactly what is happening in New York City (thanks Bloomberg).

According to Cigar Aficionado, New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has signed into law a ban on the sale of all flavored tobacco products within city limits. From Cigar Aficionado:

“Introductory number 433-A would ban the sale of tobacco products with characterizing flavors, except for menthol, mint, or wintergreen, in any location other than a tobacco bar,” said Bloomberg in the official press release. “This bill improves upon the recent federal ban on flavored cigarettes and makes New York City the first city to protect children from all flavored products on the market.“

Again with the “protection of children” shtick. Wouldn’t banning the sale of tobacco products accomplish that goal? Oh, wait, that’s right, IT IS ALREADY ILLEGAL TO SELL TOBACCO PRODUCTS TO MINORS!!!

Basically, what all the smoke-Nazis are doing is infringing on the rights of adults to supposedly “protect the children.” And sure, you would be right if you said that flavored tobacco products are more palatable for minors than the real stuff but that doesn’t change the fact that laws are already in place that prohibit the sale of all tobacco products to minors and that is the way it should be.

But I’ll play this rhetorical game with the smoze-Nazis. If it is copacetic to ban flavored tobacco products because it appeals more to children than a Partagas Black Label cigar then shouldn’t we also ban all flavored alcohol? I’m talking about those flavored vodka brands, mixed drinks, and the such.

Why is it alright to ban flavored tobacco products because it is viewed as a gateway to a lifetime of blah, blah, blah but flavored alcohol is alright even though it could also be categorized as a gateway to a lifetime of blah, blah, blah? There is, of course, little difference between the two (and, to be honest, I would wholeheartedly support a ban of all flavored vodkas… I’m kidding – sort of).

I guess the only silver lining to this whole story is that thanks to the repressive regime that is running New York (both the governor and Mayor Bloomberg) the rich are leaving that state in droves. It’s only a matter of time before those politicians will need to raise more tax revenue to cover their grandiose spending programs and that is when they will “reluctantly” legalize flavored tobacco products again.

The FDA Wants Your Comments on Tobacco Regulations

The fun thing about being a member of Cigar Rights of America is that they will occasionally send emails out about important matters to us, the cigar smokers of America. (By the way, if you have not yet joined you should for all the right – and selfish – reasons.) One such email came a couple of days ago asking their members to tell the FDA what they think about proposed tobacco regulations. Here’s what it says:

The United States Food and Drug Administration has called for public comment on the implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

Cigar Rights of America, as a adult consumer based organization with members in all fifty states, is concerned with the approach the Center for Tobacco Products will take with regard to premium hand made cigars, and hereby calls all its members to post their personal comments on the FDA’s Regulations website.

As a guideline for your comment, please be sure to include the following:

MAIN POINT:
It is clear that premium hand made cigars are not a focal point of the statute nor the intent of the US Congress, but the overarching authority over all tobacco products gives us pause and concern. It is also clear that the authority granted to the US Food and Drug Administration by Congress did not have premium hand made cigars as a target of further regulatory burden.

SUPPORTING POINTS:
1) Premium hand made cigars are an adult focused product, in terms of their use, appeal and economic attraction, with the marketing and advertising of the product being principally in adult lifestyle oriented publications, hence not in any manner appealing to children.

2) It is also worthy to note that premium hand made cigars are internationally considered an art form, that allows for adults of legal age to truly appreciate the attraction and use of the product.

3) Premium hand made cigars are products made and sold principally by family oriented businesses. Therefore, additional regulatory burdens should not be imposed upon these backbones of American small business.

4) It is also noteworthy that many in the adult cigar user population enjoy flavored cigars, and because they are enjoyed by adults, and marketed and sold only to adults, that they should not receive the scrutiny of the agency.

SPECIAL NOTE TO CRA MEMBERS:
Please compose comments in your own words and DO NOT copy the text above. Your comments will have a greater impact if they are personally composed.

CLICK HERE TO POST YOUR COMMENTS TO THE FDA

The complete release can be found here.

This kind of outreach bolsters my confidence in CRA. Like I have said before, I joined this organization with some reservations about their effectiveness. CRA is communicating with its members some but can be doing so more often through email. Even so, score one for CRA.

Flavored Cigarettes Banned… Flavored Cigars Next?

A couple of weeks ago Patrick S at The Stogie Guys wrote a post titled Stogie News: Flavored Cigarette Ban Hits, Cigars Next? Short answer: Give ‘em time.

From another blog:

One of the problems with the new legislation is that the law does not clearly denote what constitutes a cigarette.

The most common distinction between a cigar and a cigarette is in the way each is wrapped, with cigars being rolled in tobacco leaves and cigarettes being cased in paper. Officials have been “deliberately vague” in letting the public know whether the ban would apply to flavored small cigars and cigarillos.

In a letter to tobacco manufacturers the agency noted that the ban applied to all “cigarette-like” products, regardless of how they are packaged and/or marketed.

Part of the confusion is due to the strict deadline that the agency had to meet. It only had 90 days to put the ban on flavored cigarettes into effect.

Catherine Lorraine, a lawyer in the agency’s tobacco center, said, “We will be looking at products on an individual basis to determine if it meets that aspect of the legislation.”

The post goes on to explain that the reason for the ambiguity is due to the short amount of time the poor FDA had to create these new bans. It had nothing to do with the FDA wanting to create regulations so broad that they could easily be expanded in the future. No way!

Just remember, the FDA could have just enforced laws already on the book that prohibit tobacco consumption by minors. Instead of doing the sensible thing, they just went ahead and banned flavored cigarettes. And, thanks to what I think was a purposefully broad regulation, flavored cigarillos are next. Just you watch.

Cuba Cuts Back on Cigar Tobacco Acreage

Despite all the rosy projections for the cigar industry I have read and heard about for the last couple of years it looks like Cuba is going to cut back production by 30%.

Cash-short Cuba is slashing the amount of land devoted to growing its famous tobacco by more than 30 percent as the global recession and worldwide spread of smoking bans bite into sales of the country’s prized cigars.

Demand for Cuba’s cigars fell 3 percent in 2008 and earlier was reported down 15 percent in 2009 because of the recession and the smoking bans adopted in a growing number of places as a public health measure.

Cuba’s National Statistics Office, in a report posted on its web page (www.one.cu), said land to be planted with tobacco for next year’s crop had dropped to 49,000 acres (19,800 hectares), down from 70,000 acres (28,200 hectares), which was in turn less than 2008.

[SOURCE]

The theory from some of the cheerleaders in the cigar industry (Ahem, Cigar Aficionado) was that higher taxes and smoking bans would not affect premium cigar sales too much because, well, we will still buy expensive cigars despite all the roadblocks erected in front of us… just because we like premium cigars so much and our wallets are always full of money.

It is probably true that the Cubans are cutting back production of their lower level cigars; so Montecristo, Bolivar and Cohiba will not be affected as much – I’m guessing. It’s also true that the recession is having a significant impact on cigar sales. Actually, now that I think about it, according to Greg Mankiw’s blog:

The consumption of high-consumption households is more exposed to fluctuations in aggregate consumption and income than that of low-consumption households in the Consumer Expenditure (CEX) Survey.

Accompanying chart:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The exposure to aggregate consumption growth of households in the top 10 percent of the consumption distribution in the CEX is about five times that of households in the bottom 80 percent. Given real aggregate per capita consumption growth about 3 percentage points less than its historical mean during the past year, these figures predict that the ratio of consumption of the top 10 percent to the bottom 80 percent has fallen by about 15 percentage points (relative to trend)."][/caption]

Basically, what this graph shows is that during a downturn there is less cigar money; especially amongst the wealthier cigar smokers.

I don’t think it’s too controversial to claim that the goal of governments all over the world is to create a permanent recession in the tobacco industry. Through increased taxes and more aggressive smoking bans, governments are in the process of destroying the cigar industry. It will take time but, with small, incremental steps, governments all over the world are working overtime to make cigars too expensive even for the so-called wealthy people who smoke them.

Cuba cutting back tobacco acreage may turn out to be a reaction to the global recession. Or it could be a harbinger of more serious cutbacks to come.

FIGHT BACK! Join Cigar Rights of America.

L.A. County Smoke Free

At least nearly so.

According to Cigar Aficionado, smoking is banned in all L.A. County parks with a couple of exceptions:

The exceptions to the smoking ban in L.A. County parks are designated areas of recreational facilities, such as golf courses and tennis courts, which are administered by outside contractors. Additionally, exceptions to the smoking ban will also be considered for actors in different productions that have permits and for models in photo shoots the county permits.

If you are not carrying a nine iron, a racket or a SAG union card then you are out of luck.

Instead of a rant about the ever-tightening noose around smokers’ necks I will just give a link to the Coase Theorem, which, while limited in its scope to a world without transaction costs, delves into a different course of action for dealing with negative externalities. The most appealing aspect of the Coase Theorem is that it could potentially provide a framework for dealing with the (infinitesimally small) negative externality associated with outdoor second hand (and third hand) smoke that allows us to continue smoking outside in L.A.

My belief is that all those taxes that we pay for the privilege of smoking tobacco should more than make up for any possible negative externalities we may be causing.

Why I Joined Cigar Rights of America

I Joined Cigar Rights of America (CRA) to get access to their special cigars.

While this may seem like a selfish thing to do it really is not. What every upstart nonprofit needs is money and CRA is no different. They are going to need money to pay for lobbying, marketing, websites, PR, administration, and a whole boatload of other things that one would not normally think of.

So, even though my main reason for joining is to gain access to those cool new cigars that money is going to pay CRA’s bills. And, quite frankly, that is their strategy here.

Not everyone has the time nor the inclination to be a Cigar Ambassador nor will many take the time to evangelize for cigar smokers’ rights. My “Assault on Cigars” section is, I feel, my way of evangelizing but, to be honest, I should probably do more. For example, I could be emailing my anti-smoking congresswoman or my anti-smoking senators but that is not likely to have much impact on them because I am not exactly part of their base. Not by a long shot.

Like many of my cigar blogging peers (A Cigar Smokers Journal, Smoke Signals, Nice Tight Ash and many others) I have waffled back and forth on the validity of such an organization. Cigar smoking is a past time that is enjoyed by too few to make a difference on a national level. Or is it?

This is what I think CRA is doing:

1. Build up membership
2. Gain legitimacy through increased membership numbers
3. With more legitimacy comes more involvement
4. Attack local smoking bans and increased taxes (locally, statewide and nationally) with this new base of followers

With a limited set of goals, like the ones I just outlined, I think that they have a legitimate shot at making a difference. It’s going to take a while still before CRA and its members get enough clout to advance the rights of cigar smokers but they at least now are getting some traction.

Now that I have joined, for the purely selfish reason of getting access to some new cigars, I am actually thinking about stepping up my involvement in the fight against smoke-Nazis. Here I am, a professed lover of the leaf, and I am not going to help out any way I can? I don’t think I would be able to live with myself if I just sat back and watched the destruction of cigars.

Even though I am now nominally bullish on CRA I do think that they can do some things better.

1. Now that CRA is racking up members left and right it is time to start communicating with us through weekly newsletters. Events are fun and the website is awesome but the vast majority of people won’t make that extra effort to get involved. Make it so that they can get involved as easily as possible. Petitions and form letters to congress (both sourced and marketed through the Internet) are two easy steps CRA can take that will get people involved without requiring reluctant members to expend too much energy. Membership is important (money and numbers) but it is useless unless CRA can properly wield that power.
2. Partner with groups outside of the cigar industry. There is an anti-tax and anti-regulation groundswell fomenting in America right now (actually, Americans are usually anti-tax and anti-regulation except for those rare occurrences when the financial system and the housing market collapses. But I digress). Seize upon this opportunity to partner up with these kinds of groups because two dozen groups fighting regulations is better than one. Some obvious partners would be business, anti-tax, libertarian and/or conservative groups. By becoming a part of a coalition the message will get watered down but it will nevertheless be more forceful because the more voters against legislation there are the more reticent politicians will be to say “Yea” to a bill that tramples upon our rights. One word of warning, be wary of the large tobacco companies like Phillip Morris (Altria). They actually lobby for many of the regulations and taxes directed at tobacco companies because these regulations and taxes build up a barrier against smaller tobacco concerns (like cigars).
3. Get a better blog because the one you have now is horrendous. If you want, I can set you up with a snazzy new blog in a couple of hours that has some decent SEO qualities to it. More likely, you will need to hire a professional who can build you a fully optimized blog, which I can also hook you up with since my day job is as a business consultant in this area (shameless self-promotion). But you guys are going to have to do the work, which means blogging more than once a month (as of this writing CRA’s last post was August 6). This is a digital world that we live in and if your blog isn’t up to snuff then you might as well not exist.
4. Take some time to follow your Tweeps on Twitter, it doesn’t take much effort. Twitter is one of those awesome little things that everyone uses now so there really isn’t an excuse for not posting updates daily. Most of your tweets can even be automated. 235 followers on Twitter is pathetic, you can do so much better. Maybe you could get your Executives and Board Members to tweet (and blog). Every other industry has executives doing this, it’s time the cigar industry has the same kind of representation on the Internet.
5. Promote the heck out of your accomplishments (this idea was stolen from Brian Hewitt’s post on CRA’s Facebook wall). If you aren’t going to shout from the mountaintops about what you are doing and what you have done then others will eventually lose interest. Be shameless in your self promotion. Highlight CRA’s weekly events (of which there are many) in your kick-ass new blog. Tweet about every accomplishment you have made no matter how trivial. Do interviews with cigar bloggers, newspapers, magazines and news shows whenever possible. Heck, have your Board Members do some interviews as well. Putting yourself out there will promote our cause and will increase membership.
6. Get politicians on board. There are a ton of politicians out there who smoke cigars. You probably can’t walk ten feet in Miami before you run into one. Governor Schwarzenegger put up a tent so he could smoke cigars while holding court with his vast array of functionaries. The cliche about having friends in high places is true; having more politicians supporting CRA can only be a good thing.

CRA is off to a good start and movements like these take a lot of time before they reach alarge enough magnitude to really affect change. I signed up for the cool cigars but I bet I will be getting more involved as time rolls on. If you have not yet signed up you should go over to CRA’s website and take a gander at those special cigars. Join now to get access to those smokes while it is still legal to buy them in the United States.

PRESS RELEASE: CRA Offers 2 FREE Exclusive Premium Cigars – FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

CIGAR RIGHTS OF AMERICA

10533 Main Street, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, U.S.A.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: August 24, 2009
Contact: Brian Berman
Phone: (818) 541-1535
Email: brian.berman@cigarrights.org

CRA Offers 2 FREE Exclusive Premium Cigars – FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Fairfax, VA – Cigar Rights of America (CRA) has announced an exciting new bonus offer exclusively for members that will serve as a unique member benefit, while advancing the cause of protecting cigar enthusiasts from intrusive taxation and regulation.

An initial coalition with approximately twenty of the world’s top cigar makers have joined forces to create an exclusive one-of-a-kind collection of cigars specially blended or sized for CRA members only! These cigars are not available anywhere else and you must be a CRA member to get them.

THE BONUS OFFER: Starting today, anyone who joins CRA or renews their existing CRA membership, will receive 2 FREE exclusive premium cigars.*

The cigars will be randomly paired and packaged from the following brands:

Ashton
Arturo Fuente
Avo
Alec Bradley
CAO
Camacho
Casa Fernandez
Drew Estate
Don Pepin
Fonseca
La Aurora
La Flor Dominicana
La Gloria Cubana
J.C. Newman (Maximus)
Oliva
Padron
Tabacalera Perdomo
Punch
Puros Indios
Rocky Patel
Tatuaje
Torano

For more information, or to join/renew, please visit www.cigarrights.org

About Cigar Rights of America

Cigar Rights of America (CRA) was founded on the principle of fighting for the freedom to enjoy premium cigars. A consumer-based, non-profit public advocacy organization that works with local, state and federal governments to protect the freedoms of cigar enthusiasts, CRA works with its constituency of members including manufacturers, retailers and cigar enthusiasts to focus on opposing restrictive smoking bans and increased taxation of cigars.

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* While Supplies Last. Member must pay $5 for shipping/handling. Cigars are Toro size.

SCHIP Leads to Closure of Cigar Factory

I was on Twitter last night (@Travis_Lindsay) and I saw this Tweet from @taxfoundation about a cigar manufacturer closing down due to a new tax, SCHIP. Here is the important part of their post:

Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902.[...]

However, the company attributed much of its trouble to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, a federal program that provides health insurance to low-income children. It is funded, in part, by a new federal tax on cigars and cigarettes. McKenzie couldn’t say how much sales of Hav-A-Tampa cigars had fallen off, but the numbers have dropped significantly, he said.

Previously, federal excise taxes on cigars were limited to no more than a nickel, said Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America trade group. The tax increase, which took effect April 1, raises the maximum tax on cigars to about 40 cents, Sharp said.

Complete Article

Hav-A-Tampa cigars aren’t premium cigars so I personally won’t be affected by this closure but, still, 500 employees is 500 employees and there were people who did smoke these wood-tipped cigars. It’s too bad that SCHIP has caused this company to close. I just wonder how this will affect the “jobs saved or created” metric and what other small scale cigar companies will eventually close because the taxes are too injurious.

Update on Nebraska Cigar Bar Exemption

Here’s an update on yesterday’s story about cigar bar exemptions in Nebraska; from Cigar Aficionado:

Many lawmakers opposed the original bill, not necessarily for its attempt to exempt cigar bars, but for its vague language. They felt the bill contained loopholes that would allow businesses to stock up on tobacco products to meet the definition of a cigar bar and permit patrons to smoke.

Since Friday, lawmakers have been fine-tuning details of an amendment that seeks to exempt cigar bars from the ban while tightening the language so other businesses couldn’t easily qualify as cigar bars.

By day’s end today, the bill being discussed would lower the revenue figure to 10 percent, but this percentage would be derived solely from cigar sales.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill tomorrow.

Hopefully the amendment gets passed.

The Cigar Bar “Exemption” in Nebraska

It would seem to me that cigar bars are meant to be a place where cigar smokers go to smoke cigars and not places for cigars to go to drink (Confused? Click HERE to read this great satire.). Therefore, it would seem reasonable that anyone who entered a cigar bar, whether for business or pleasure, would know that they will be exposed to that awful second-hand smoke. And yet, anti-smoking crusaders are out to protect, well, who exactly? The illiterate?

Evidently, there are a ton of illiterates in Nebraska because their state’s smoke-Nazis have made it next to impossible to legally operate a cigar bar. For example, according to a new law that is near passing, an establishment would need to realize at least 15% of their revenues from selling cigars. Not cigarettes or other tobacco-related products, mind you, nor can they sell “cigars for $15 with a free steak dinner.” It has to be a “real” 15%. Or, in politician-speak, “YOU’RE BANNED!”

Fighting tooth and nail just to keep six cigar bars open in Nebraska – We’re losing the war on smoking

And why is there all of this cigar smoking hate going on in Nebraska? If cigar bars are allowed to survive, praise to the legislature on high, there will be about six cigar bars left in the state. SIX!!!!

This is where we are in this battle. Cigar smokers are incrementally getting their rights rolled back. Taxes on cigars have been raised through S-CHIP, you can’t buy cheap cigar unless they are in a five-pack due to fear of kids using them to create blunts, you can’t smoke inside, you can’t smoke outside, you can’t smoke in your car with your kids (who, presumably, aren’t smoking), and smoking will eventually be outlawed thanks to the smoke-Nazi propaganda gold that is third-hand smoke.

I hope those cigar bars stay open but, in the end, I am becoming more convinced that we are on a road to tobacco prohibition. Thank you nanny-stater ninnies.