Premium Cigar News and Notes

Look here for current cigar articles, news alerts and more

Jul 24

Generational Tobacco Bans: A Growing Focus in the US & Worldwide

As the concept of generational tobacco bans gain momentum across the country and the globe, the debate continues to intensify over their impact on public health, personal freedoms, and the…

Jul 12

Supreme Court Rulings Signal New Era for Federal Regulatory Power: Implications for the Premium Cigar Industry

By: Mike Copperman, Executive Director of Cigar Rights of America In the final days of its blockbuster 2024 term, the Supreme Court released two significant decisions on Executive Agencies’ regulatory…

Jun 28

Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Deference

By Cody Carden Earlier today, the Supreme Court published their decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, a case which significantly curtails the power of federal agencies such as the Food and Drug…

Jun 25

The Power of One: Why Your Voice Matters in Cigar Rights Advocacy

In the realm of advocacy, every individual voice can be a powerful catalyst for change. For those of us who cherish the art of enjoying cigars, the need to speak…

Jun 25

The Rich Heritage of Premium Cigar Tobacco Growing in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think about premium cigar tobacco, but the Commonwealth’s role in the tobacco industry reaches back to the…

Jun 13

The Futility of Tobacco Taxes: Why They Fail to Curb Smoking

For the better part of the last two decades, anti-tobacco advocates have turned their attention towards pursuing legislative endeavors that seek to implement massive tax increases on tobacco products with…

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Cigar News

April 4, 2024

United States: Baseball and cigars have woven a unique tapestry in American culture, symbolizing not only a bond of tradition and camaraderie but also celebrated collective memory and individual leisure. With the beginning of a new baseball season, we want to pause to reflect on their shared history and cultural significance.

April 3, 2024

Georgia: City leaders did not approve or deny a permit for a downtown cigar lounge at the council meeting Monday because there was no quorum. The mayor and one councilman were not present while another councilman was the person submitting the new business request.

April 3, 2024

Missouri: The Washington City Council approved an ordinance Monday granting an exemption from its indoor smoking ban for cigar bars.

April 2, 2024

Florida: Since 2009, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has been Tampa’s last operational cigar factory. Recently, the 129-year-old business located inside Ybor City’s El Regensburg Cigar Factory learned they have an even more notable distinction.

March 27, 2024

Washington, DC: President Biden and former President Donald Trump have secured the necessary number of delegates to clinch their party's presidential nomination, paving the way for the inevitable rematch between the 2020 rivals. The consequences of the potential return of former President Trump to the White House has stirred significant discussion around the structure and operation of the federal government. Trump's outlined intentions, focusing on the dissolution of certain government agencies and the displacement of a vast number of federal employees, underscores what would be a transformative vision for the federal bureaucracy.

March 14, 2024

Washington, DC: The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts’ decision to uphold the town of Brookline's decision to implement a generational smoking ban, prohibiting the sale of tobacco to anyone born after January 1, 2000, is an underreported but potentially highly critical inflection point for the premium cigar industry nationwide.

March 7, 2024

Canada: Since 2001, Canada has taken an aggressive stance regarding tobacco control measures. Once again, it has set new standards with the introduction of individual cigarette warning messages to discourage smoking, particularly among youth and non-smokers. Under the Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging, and Labeling regulations (TPAPLR), cigarettes in Canada now bear stark warnings like "poison in every puff." These messages, which are periodically updated, aim to ensure their continued effectiveness in deterring smokers and raising awareness about the dangers of cigarettes. Although the messaging was approved last year and has already been implemented, scientific literature has only now begun evaluating the impact of these warnings.

March 7, 2024

United States: In an industry often associated with tradition and masculinity, the pivotal role of women in the premium cigar world is increasingly gaining recognition. From the rolling factories of Latin America to the business landscape in the United States, women are increasingly being appreciated for the significant contributions they have and will make while shaping the industry's present and future.

March 7, 2024

Washington, DC: The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) recently issued a quarterly update on its activities, along with an outlook for the Agency’s future regulatory actions. Among a number of other actions, CTP is now working to complete a proposal that would set limits on the amount of nicotine allowed in tobacco products. Such a rule could fundamentally reshape the entire tobacco industry, as the FDA has previously stated that their goal is to lower nicotine to “non-addictive levels.”

February 23, 2024

Washington, DC: CRA monitors federal policies across the tobacco regulation space as part of our efforts to protect premium cigars. This monitoring is critical to understanding the larger trends and perspectives at the FDA as they emerge and evolve. While this article on FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf's efforts to lobby the White House regarding the long-delayed menthol ban does not directly address CRA's regulatory concerns surrounding premium cigars, as defined by Judge Amit Mehta (see footnote 7), it is a critical example of how important it is to understand FDA's approaches to their other regulatory efforts as analogs to inform how they are likely to engage premium cigars at the end of their current appeal-process in federal court.

As part of this strategic process, we filed a comment with the FDA on August 3, 2023, regarding their recent proposed flavored tobacco product policy. While CRA does not take a position on flavor and menthol bans generally, we do engage on such policies to advocate for premium cigars to be exempted, to avoid inadvertent overregulation, and we expect to do the same when the menthol ban is proposed in the Federal Register. While premium cigars are currently unregulated by the FDA, we must continue these efforts to insulate premium cigars from the FDA's future efforts to re-regulate us, something they have repeatedly signaled they intend to pursue at the end of the current appeals process.