The Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed into effect by President Barak Obama on June 22 2009 has a provision that prohibits any flavored cigarettes (except for menthol of course) from being sold as of Tuesday. In a “Letter to Industry on Cigarettes Containing Certain Characterizing Flavors”, sent to tobacconists across the country on September 14th, states that
establishes a tobacco product standard special rule for cigarettes that states in part:
…a cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke.
This standard applies to all tobacco products that meet the definition of a “cigarette” in section 900(3) of the Act even if they are not labeled as “cigarettes” or are labeled as cigars or as some other product.
Of course, they don’t really explain what the text of Section 900(3) is so many tobacconists have been struggling to try and understand what that means. Does that mean that pipe tobacco and cigars WILL be affected? At face value this could be the case.
Here is the actual text of the appropriate section:
‘‘SEC. 900. DEFINITIONS.
‘‘(3) CIGARETTE.—The term ‘cigarette’—
‘‘(A) means a product that—
‘‘(i) is a tobacco product; and
‘‘(ii) meets the definition of the term ‘cigarette’ in section 3(1) of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act; and
‘‘(B) includes tobacco, in any form, that is functional in the product, which, because of its appearance, the type of tobacco used in the filler, or its packaging and labeling, is likely to be offered to, or purchased by, consumers as a cigarette or as roll-your-own tobacco.
‘‘(4) CIGARETTE TOBACCO.—The term ‘cigarette tobacco’ means any product that consists of loose tobacco that is intended for use by consumers in a cigarette. Unless otherwise stated, the requirements applicable to cigarettes under this chapter shall also apply to cigarette tobacco.
The Section referred to above is most likely Title 15, Chapter 36, Section 1332(1) of the US Code:
(1) The term “cigarette” means—
(A) any roll of tobacco wrapped in paper or in any substance not containing tobacco, and
(B) any roll of tobacco wrapped in any substance containing tobacco which, because of its appearance, the type of tobacco used in the filler, or its packaging and labeling, is likely to be offered to, or purchased by, consumers as a cigarette described in subparagraph (A).
So, using the above, it would appear that cigars will not be affected. It is pretty clear that taking a cigarette and calling it a little cigar is not going to exempt that product from this section of the act. However, truly legitimate little cigars will. However, there is wiggle room provided by the appearance portion of (1)(B) above.
However, where does this leave the pipe smoker? Our vendors tell us this is not going to present a problem, however the verbiage in Section 900(3)(B) could be loosely interpreted to include pipe tobacco because people COULD purchase pipe tobacco for RYO cigarettes. We’ve even seen some vendors bagging up RYO flavored cigarette tobacco and labeling it as pipe tobacco. One look at the tobacco will confirm that it isn’t pipe tobacco despite what it says on the packaging.
Originally I assumed this was an attempt to get around the $24/pound federal tax on RYO products (Thank you SCHIPPs) but it may be an attempt to get around this restriction as well. One hopes that shenanigans like this or extensive use of pipe tobacco by cigarette smokers doesn’t cause a crack-down on pipe tobacco.
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