Editorial – Stop The FDA
The FDA will close public input to the latest proposed regulations on cigars this Friday August 8th. We have just 4 days to voice our concerns. Many of you have done that and now I am calling on all to use social media to further voice our concerns. The FDA tag is @FDATobacco. Use this in all social media posts especially Twitter and Instagram to get the messages to them. In short tweets, let the FDA know why this will hurt businesses and consumers alike. Cigar smoking is not a crime, it is choice we as adults, Free Adults, make and there are many small businesses that cater to our love of the leaf.
Cigars are not like cigarettes, in that cigars are made from pure tobacco with no harmful additives like those in cigarettes. The business provides employment around the world and has done so for hundreds of years.
The farms and factories in many second and third world countries, like Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic rely on American consumers to support them to produce the products we enjoy. Just raising prices to $10.00 a stick, which will happen if the FDA regulations are enacted, will force many of these farms to close and add to the impoverished citizens of these countries. This may well lead to the production of illegal drugs and increased crime for these hard-working men and women to support their families. We already have an immigration crisis from these countries as it is.
In the United States we have many small cigar shops that rely on the cigar consumer to support their families. If full enactment of the regulations are applied to cigars, many of these shops will close adding to the rolls of the unemployed. We will not have a shop to go to for socializing with others and sharing thoughts and ideas, watching a game on Sunday afternoon, or providing a place to relax after a long day or to celebrate.
I implore you, my readers, to take action with simple and effective tweets and messages to the FDA at @FDATobacco so that we are heard. I also suggest you write or call your Congressmen and Senators in the next few days to ask them, to press the FDA to exempt Cigars from this regulation.
You can read more on the regulations here
You can provide written input and comments here
The directory of Congress men and women is here.
The directory of Senators is here.
Long Ashes to All
James (Boston Jimmie) Vita
Editor and Publisher
Stogie Press
We have the right to enjoy a tradition that has been part of our history, we have the right to enjoy our cigar.
Enrique, You are absolutely correct. The last tickets I checked this is a free country and adults have the right to do business in legal markets.
Enrique, I agree and that is why we must continue to press the FDA not to impose regulations and artificial price points. I truly appreciate your comments.
Leave us cigar smokers alone and go after the cigarette smokers and the bars and pubs.