How to Effectively Fight for your Right to Smoke Cigars
One of the most awe inspiring historical events is the last stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae. At that narrow pass, 300 Spartans (plus some other lesser known Greeks) held off the combined might of the Persians, which purportedly numbered in the millions, long enough to let the Greeks regroup and launch a proper counterattack. Due to the bravery of those brave few, democracy survived Xerxes onslaught.
Fast forward to today and we have a story that is kind of, sort of similar to that famous last stand. Every day you smoke cigars. These cigars are carefully made by skillful artisans in far flung lands that you have probably never visited. In fact, according to Jose Blanco from La Aurora, which happens to be the factory I recently visited, over 200 people are involved in cigar making process. Honestly, when you consider the gigantic operation it takes to take a cigar from seed to your humidor it is mind boggling.
And let me be clear, when I say that over 200 people are involved in the cigar making process I mean over 200 people come in direct contact with the tobacco that comprises your premium cigars. That is 200 lives that are improved by the mere fact of taking part in making your cigars.
Like the fabled Sword of Damocles, cigar taxes and bans threaten these people’s livelihoods. With each new assault on cigars, more and more of these humble craftsman lose their jobs. We are reaching a tipping point where, due to the religious fervor with which politicians attack our noble pastime, these people are losing their jobs.
Cigar factories have almost completely disappeared from America. I fear that with the zealous advance of cigar taxes and bans both here in America and internationally that there will come a time when many of the people who are now employed in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and many other countries in Latin America will eventually lose their jobs.
It does not take an immense imaginative leap to claim that with the loss of relatively lucrative jobs working in a cigar factory that these people will have to find well-paying jobs elsewhere, like in America. Now, I’m not one of those “open borders” people but I can definitely appreciate the fact, and it is a fact, that desperate people will risk a lot to improve their lot in life.
So, if they lose their cigar factory jobs in the Dominican Republic, they are likely to move to someplace where the job prospects are better; like America. Now, I know that you, my fellow Brothers of the Leaf, don’t need any more convincing that cigar taxes and bans are stupid. But others might need a little nudge to oppose these draconian measures against cigars.
Here’s the point. The next time you have one of those nattering nay-bobs pouncing on you for smoking a premium cigar you need to come at them with a different tact. Instead of using the all-too legitimate standby of cigar smoking being a right you need to come at them with the negative economic impact that cigar taxes and bans will thrust upon the world.
Tell them that each time the government suppresses cigar smoking, jobs will be lost abroad and domestically. Tell them that whenever another city bans cigar smoking in a bar they are eliminating jobs domestically and internationally. And that those lost jobs in Honduras will lead to those displaced workers plying their trade in America. Do those proponent of cigar bans really want more people flooding across the border? Didn’t think so.
It is actually quite simple. Whenever you encounter someone who is all for another cigar tax or ban just tell them of the economic repercussions of their stance. The whole “rights” argument just doesn’t penetrate their bigoted minds. You have to hit closer to home. Make it personal for them.
Watch Out! They Now Want to Tax “Little Cigars” to “Protect” the Children
Here’s the first rule of social crusading: MAKE IT ABOUT THE CHILDREN.
That’s what was going on with S-CHIP a year ago and that is what is behind this newest assault on a legal product that we all enjoy – cigars. Here’s the gist of the whole thing from California’s Modesto Bee:
The packaging is pretty and the product sounds tasty, even a little wholesome. But inside the brightly colored wrappers that tout an assortment of flavors such as vanilla, strawberry and peach are cigars and cigarillos — and, according to public health advocates, a not-so-subtle strategy to target young people with cheap, candy-flavored tobacco.
“They do not see these little cigars — because of the candy flavor — as smoking,” said Debra Annand, director of health education services of the American Lung Association. Even worse, she said, is that federal regulations define cigars in a way that allows tobacco companies to escape the steep taxes that have been levied against cigarettes in recent years.
Health advocates know that smoking habits, particularly among adolescents, are affected by cost.
“It’s like gas prices,” said a 17-year-old girl smoking outside Jammin’ Java in Vienna, Va., recently. “When they go down, you get excited.”
Now a move is under way by public health advocates to push back against cigar usage by taxing some cigars like cigarettes.
The Modesto Bee – Big taxes don’t touch little cigars
The logical thing to do would be to prosecute retailers or others who sell to minors (and the minors themselves) if you wanted to stop children from smoking tobacco products. But no, that’s not their goal.
The goal of the anti-smoking lobby is to eventually outlaw all tobacco products. Like the neo-prohibitionists they are, they can’t stand the fact that some people are just not as “smart” as they are and don’t see the obvious pitfalls of smoking. These people are fascists (and yes, the Nazis did have anti-smoking laws).
How much blood do these vampires want? Again, from the Modesto Bee:
Federal excise taxes amount to 39 cents on a pack of 20 cigarettes, while cigars are taxed at a maximum of 5 cents each, according to Art Resnick, a spokesman for the tobacco tax bureau.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has urged states to consider taxing all tobacco products to bring them in line with cigarettes. Ten states have imposed taxes that treat some cigars like cigarettes, the Cigar Association says.
In May, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Joshua M. Sharfstein proposed banning the sale of single, cheap cigars. Noting that cigarettes must be sold in packs of 20 and cost as much as $5, Sharfstein would require Baltimore merchants to sell cigars in packs of five or more, with the aim of discouraging young people from trying the cheap nicotine hit of a single cigarillo.
The Modesto Bee – Big taxes don’t touch little cigars
And don’t think that this is some kind of end-game either.
“If [outlawing the sale of single cigarillos is] implemented, it’s not going to be a miracle fix of the problem, not by any stretch. But it’s a component,” the health commissioner said.
The Modesto Bee – Big taxes don’t touch little cigars
Get ready because all of this is coming to a head very quickly. Once we get nationalized health care and the health of every last person in America is under the management of our government more draconian restrictions will be passed. I can now easily imagine a day when all tobacco products are outlawed in this country.
Scary.
