A Big Move for La Gloria and More Smoking Laws by Frank Seltzer
La Gloria Cubana is making a move. The cigar was first made in Miami, then when he could not keep up with demand, owner Ernesto Perez Carrillo moved production to the Dominican Republic in the mid 90s with Miami being phased out. Carrillo sold his company to Swedish Match, which eventually became part of General Cigar. The company kept Ernie’s old factory until a few years ago when they moved it into their main facility, while still keeping it separate. All of the La Glorias have been produced by the El Credito facility until now.
La Gloria Cubana Black
General Cigar is adding to the La Gloria line with a Serie R Black. This new cigar will be made in Nicaragua. Now La Gloria has been incorporating Nicaraguan tobacco since the introduction of the Serie N in 2010. But this will be the first time the brand actually has a cigar made in Nicaragua. The Serie R Black will feature viso from Jalapa and Esteli with a Jalapa viso binder. The wrapper is a Jalapa ligero from the 2009 crop. The new black will come in three large sizes: No. 58 (6.87” x 58 with an MSRP of $6.99); No. 60 (6” x 60 with a price of $7.24) and No.64 (6.25” x 64 priced at $7.49).
There will be another Serie R from Nicaragua to be launched at the trade show in July, but initial details are expected in the next few weeks.
New York Does It Again
The city that never sleeps and the place with the biggest nanny of them all, continues to amaze. Because of its high cigarette taxes, 61% of all cigs in New York are either bootlegged or counterfeit. You would THINK they might learn something. But no.
Bloomberg banned smoking in jail in 2003….well fast forward 10 years and what has it produced? Healthier inmates or a Burgeoning Black Market? If you said black market you’d be right. This year there already have been 20 arrests…including a deliveryman who was trying to sneak four bags of tobacco into the jail on a truck carrying fruits and vegetables.
According to the New York Daily News:
The average price for a single smoke at Rikers Island is $30, jail sources said — a far cry from the 50 to 75 cents a “loosie” typically costs at a bodega. And full packs that legally sell for $15 in stores can bring as much as $200 in the Rikers Island “brown market,” according to a DA source.
The city is now using dogs to try to find the naughty tobacco. But the union that represents the guards is opposed to having the dogs come into their areas.
That’s not all. New York City is trying to raise the legal age for smoking from 18 to 21. It is part of the bill that would make stores hide cigarette and tobacco products and increase penalties for those who violate their new laws. Maybe they actually WANT to put more people in jail.
Nice to see that New York has solved all its other problems. The trouble is their idiocacy is catching. Now New Jersey is also thinking about raising the legal age to smoke.
The gutsy pols went over to Bloomberg central in New York City to make their announcement…they didn’t even have the guts to do it in their own state. I think people need to stay away from New York, whatever they have is catching. Sheesh.
Third Hand Crap
Last week, I told you about a new study that said so called third hand smoke was totally evil and hurting people in hotel rooms where smoking wasn’t even allowed. We knew the study was B-S, but now tobacco control advocate, and logical thinker ( a shock) Michael Siegel has weighed in on the report.
Dr. Siegel looked at the study and basically said it was a load of bunk much like we suggested last week, of course he has science on his side.
Readers of the conclusions of this study might be surprised to find out that the study found no significant difference in air nicotine levels in nonsmoking rooms in hotels with partial smoking bans and those in nonsmoking rooms in hotels with complete smoking bans.
He goes on to write that while there could be some additional nicotine on the walls of non smoking hotel rooms, it did not result in any differences in terms of exposure. (By the way the nicotine on the walls COULD be from the time before the smoking bans in those rooms…or people simply smoked in them anyway. There is no way of knowing how it got there or when.)
Concludes Siegel:
That major finding would lead me to conclude that there is no significant health risk associated with staying in a nonsmoking room in a hotel that allows smoking in some rooms. It would also lead me to conclude that partial smoking bans do indeed work in terms of preventing tobacco smoke exposure for guests staying in nonsmoking rooms.
That the paper suggests the opposite is in conflict with the actual findings of the paper and suggests that there was a pre-determined conclusion and a pre-determined agenda that guided this research.
Gee, research coming to a pre-destined conclusion? Wow. I thought “science” was impartial.
