Maryland shipment ban has cigar enthusiasts all fired up

Friday, May 13 2011

Sometimes Bruce Parrish likes to smoke a Fuente Fuente OpusX when he mows his Westminster lawn. He can't buy the $20 Dominicans, described by Cigar.com as "perhaps the rarest and highest rated brand in the world," at his local tobacconist, he says.

So he takes advantage of the modern economy and orders them online from Pennsylvania, whence they arrive by mail. Or at least they used to.

Starting May 1 it became illegal to ship cigars directly to Maryland consumers, according to an interpretation of a 2010 law by Comptroller Peter Franchot. As a result, smokers have been bombarding Franchot with combustible emails.

Read more at baltimoresun.com...