Penalized for Banning Smoking? By Frank Seltzer
Here is a refreshing viewpoint. A Missouri legislator has introduced legislation that would penalize towns and counties to give up revenue from businesses affected by the banning of smoking. The legislator – Republican Representative Kathie Conway – says she is trying to protect the rights of bar owners, restaurants and other businesses. She tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the businesses should be able to decide for themselves if they want to be smoke free. If a county or town bans smoking, then the property and sales tax revenue from the businesses would not go to the municipalities but instead would go to the schools. The head of Tobacco-Free Missouri says the bill is trying to intimidate cities and counties from even considering smoke-free laws. Damn right.
Cigars Raise Big $$$
We always hear the evils of cigars, but here is something positive. Tuesday a week ago, the 19th annual Night to Remember Fundraiser brought in over a million dollars for Prostate Cancer research. The effort is hosted by Cigar Aficionado’s Marvin Shanken at New York’s Four Seasons restaurant. The live auction brought in $488,000 and then Michael Milken, the founder of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, matched it. According to the release:
The evening was highlighted by speeches from Rush Limbaugh, who reminded the audience how important cigars are in his life, and Rudy Guiliani, the former mayor of New York, who talked about how Americans’ freedoms are being eroded, including the right to smoke a cigar. Milken updated the crowd on the progress being made in the quest to cure prostate cancer, and some of the advancements that have not only helped in the fight against the disease but are producing progress in the broader quest to cure all cancers.
Greg Mottola of Cigar Aficionado quotes Guiliani, a survivor of prostate cancer as saying:
“When I first became mayor of New York City, we worried about things like murder. Assault. Riots. Poverty, If they have time now to concentrate on the size of your soda and cigars, I must have done one heck of a job when I was in office.”
Ya gotta love that mayor. Kudos to a great night and a terrific fund raiser.
FDA Still At It
The FDA has said in its regulatory outlook for this year that it will propose rules sometime this month to expand its oversight of tobacco products….you can read into that it means cigars. Recently, The Hill – a paper covering Capitol Hill—wrote about our efforts to combat this. The article quotes Glynn Loope—the head of the Cigar Rights of America—as saying the FDA is overreaching.
“When Congress passed the original Tobacco Control Act, it was really to address two primary points: youth access to tobacco and chemical addition. Premium cigars don’t meet that criteria,” Loope said.
Bill Spann, the head of the IPCPR, also weighed in echoing Loope’s thoughts that the act as passed by Congress was aimed at stopping youth smoking. Spann has often said kids are not seen smoking a $25 Davidoff on the corner. He added that premium cigars are only sold in tobacconists where you have to be 18 to even get in.
Besides the government, Altria (which makes Philip Morris cigarettes) is also in favor of expanded government oversight. They do not want any special treatment for premium cigars. (Of course, Altria does NOT make premium cigars.)
There is legislation in the House and Senate to create an exemption for premium cigars. ( The Senate version was introduced last week.) I know many of you wrote to your Congressman or Senator last time around. But this is a new session and new legislation. The House version, H.R. 792, was introduced in February and has 61 co-sponsors in addition to author Rep. Bill Posey of Florida. The Senate version, S. 772, has 5 co-sponsors in addition to the author Senator Bill Nelson of Florida. We need a lot more to get these bills moving.
Support the CRA AND you can write a letter to your people in Congress urging them to support the bill. This is important. This week, the new head of the FDA section on Tobacco will be speaking in Las Vegas and I’ll let you know what he says.
