Cigar Rights

I am unhappy to know that there are bills being considered for the abolition of some cigar smokers rights here in America.  Here are the details. 
If you want to visit the site for Cigar Rights, the web address is:
www.cigarrights.org
There is a place to sign to petition your legislators.

Here is the bills details per the cigar rights site and then I have 2 responses from a congresswoman's office as well as a form letter response from Sherrod Brown's Senatorial Office.


Help Exempt Premium Cigars From FDA Regulation! H.R. 1639 / S. 1461 - Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act
Did you know that on April 26, 2010, December 20, 2010, and July 7, 2011 the U.S. Food & Drug Administration publicly posted their intent to regulate cigars in the Federal Register?

Some of the measures FDA could consider, as we believe they are, include:

• Ban on walk-in humidors, self serve cigar displays, and mail-order cigar sales;
• Ban on all flavored cigars, that are enjoyed by legal-age adults;
• Deface ornate, decorative cigar boxes, often considered an art form with grotesque images;
• Ban on cigar events where free cigars (samples) could be available to legal-age adults;
• Limits on cigar marketing and advertising;
• Imposition of new 'user fees' [tax] on cigars, to finance regulations;
• Limits on special release and small-batch cigars, due to mandates that cigar blends be submitted to FDA for pre-approval before release;
• Limits on nicotine levels on cigars to near zero, severely impacting the flavor of cigars;
• Ban on marketing cigar merchandise.

RE: Favor appreciated‏

10:05 AM

To craig brenner

From:	Breck, Catherine (Catherine.Breck@mail.house.gov)
Sent:	Mon 11/28/11 10:05 AM
To:	craig brenner (craigbrenner@live.com)

Hi Craig – Thank you for your email. I was able to look up the bill – H.R. 1639 was introduced by Rep. Bill Posey [R-FL-15] on April 15, 2011. It was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee - Subcommittee on Health on April 25, 2011. You research the information and track the bill on the website, www.lis.gov.

Senator Bill Nelson [D-FL] introduced the companion bill, S. 1461, on August 1, 2011. This bill was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. There are only two cosponsors – Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Pat Toomey. Senator Sherrod Brown is not listed as a cosponsor. You can also access this information using LIS.

Again, please do not hesitate to contact me should you need additional assistance.

Thanks.

Catherine Breck

Office of Congresswoman Betty Sutton (OH-13)

2 South Main Street, Suite 380

Akron, OH 44308

(330) 865-8450

(330) 865-8470 FAX

Catherine.Breck@mail.house.gov

From: craig brenner [mailto:craigbrenner@live.com]
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 7:29 AM
To: Breck, Catherine
Subject: Favor appreciated

Dear Catey,

Thank you for visiting with Congresswoman Betty Sutton and sharing with us at the JCC last week.
I mentioned to you the legislation against the Cigar Industry.

The actual bills are the following:
H.R. 1639 / S. 1461 - Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act

More information can be found at Cigar Rights of America at www.cigarrights.org

Please consider the interests of many cigar enjoying Americans!

Of note I have been told that Mr. Sherrod Brown may be a leading endorser of this legislation.


You asked me recently how I was able to promote my blog.

Another very important way to promote blogs you may want to consider is by twitter.
I can twitter the blog entry on my account, but more importantly:
I can use hash tags to denote the importance of the entry and advertise to a select audience.

For example, if I was to twitter this letters contents on twitter, I would use the hash tag #cigars and #congress.

This way anyone who goes to that hash tag will find your blog entry.
Thus I can get readers for specific entrys on the blog.

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,

Craig Brenner

LETTER FROM SHERROD BROWN:

Reply from Senator Sherrod Brown‏

10/03/11

To craigbrenner@live.com

From:	Sherrod Brown (Senator_Brown@brown.senate.gov)
Sent:	Mon 10/03/11 8:48 AM
To:	craigbrenner@live.com

<><><><><><>

<><><><><><> Dear Dr. Brenner: Thank you for getting in touch with me regarding S.1461, the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act. The Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act would exempt premium and traditional cigars from regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). I appreciate your concern that FDA regulation could hurt small businesses and that these types of cigars are a niche product in the tobacco market. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act — passed with strong bipartisan support in 2009 — is intended to address the serious economic and public health issue tobacco use causes for Ohio and the nation. Tobacco-related illnesses kill approximately 20,000 Ohioans every year, according to the Ohio Department of Health. One out of every six Ohio Medicaid dollars goes toward treatment of tobacco-related diseases, effectively imposing an annual tax of over $500 on every Ohio household. While cigars are considered to be tobacco products, the legislation does not specifically apply to cigars. As the FDA determines the treatment of premium cigars under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, I will keep your concerns in mind. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. Sincerely, Sherrod Brown United States Senator