Monday, January 23 2012
By Bob Barr | Former Congressman (R-GA)
The Daily Caller (Washington, DC)
Government regulators and their enablers in Congress, always on the prowl to target industries for ever-more oppressive regulations and higher taxes, are now focusing on the venerable “good cigar” eloquently extolled by Rudyard Kipling and many other connoisseurs of a “good smoke.”
Since the mid-1960s, tobacco has been one of the big-government nannies’ favorite targets. While anti-tobacconists have scored only sporadic victories in the courts over the past few decades, that is partly due to the fact that until 2009, when Congress passed the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,” tobacco was not lawfully regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
While cigarettes are the primary target of the 2009 law, it was only a matter of time before the nannies at the FDA flexed their regulatory muscles and went after
cigars. In fact, in November an FDA spokesman told The Daily Caller that the FDA believes it has the right to promulgate regulations controlling “other tobacco products.”
The FDA is particularly targeting “ cigarillos” or “little cigars,” the cheap, often-flavored brands sold at gas stations and convenience stores. Tobacco-haters claim that cigarillos are a gateway to nicotine addiction, though regulators have offered little evidence to support this claim.
Last month, Reason magazine’s Jacob Sullum explained that proponents of tobacco regulation “offer zero evidence, aside from bald assertion, that flavored cigars are particularly popular among minors.” On the contrary, as noted by Sullum, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and the University of Michigan have shown that consumption of these particular tobacco products has actually decreased over the past 10 to 15 years.
There is, of course, even less evidence that premium cigars — brands like Ghurka, Padron and Arturo Fuente — are prompting a surge in teen smoking. Such facts, of course, matter little to the bureaucrats and “scientists” at the FDA, which continues to demonize all forms of tobacco.
Mr. Barr's opinion piece continues at thedailycaller.com...
