Cigar Smoker’s Rights Hub Keeps You Updated On FDA Regulations

If you enjoy a good smoke while out on the course, you may be interested in the progress of a cigar industry lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration over tight new regulations. To keep cigar aficionados informed, Famous Smokes has launched a Cigar Smoker’s Rights Hub website. The goal, says Arthur Zaretsky, president and owner of Famous Smoke Shop, is to inform cigar enthusiasts on effects of the FDA’s 499 pages of new regulations.

“The rights of adult cigar enthusiasts to purchase and enjoy a completely legal product are quickly going up in flames,” according to Zaretsky.

Zaretsky says the new FDA regulations are filled with measures, rulings, definitions and fees that “completely overstepped the authority FDA was given by Congress to regulate tobacco.”

“The agency is going at this regulation, and the costs associated with compliance, blindly. The FDA has failed to perform an adequate, legitimate cost-benefit analysis of the Final Rule’s economic impact on small businesses, as is required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act,” says Zaretsky, who adds, “the FDA is defying the law.”

The cigar industry argues that their products are significantly different from cigarettes. Their contents, and how they are  made, are vastly different, says Cigar Advisor Managing Editor John Pullo: “premium cigars are made entirely by hand, with whole tobacco leaf. Cigarettes are vastly different — they’re made on high speed machines, in bulk, using chopped tobaccos and additives. Cigars and cigarettes are very different, and shouldn’t be treated the same way.”

The details of this suit, along with regular updates on additional filings and motions, are currently posted at the Famous Smoke Shop Cigar Rights site.