If you’re a cigar smoker you’ve probably heard requests for you to call members of Congress to tell them to exempt premium cigars from regulation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Here’s the six things you need to know about how things are going. 1. WHAT’S GOING ON? Congress is finishing up the omnibus spending bill. It’s one large bill that provides funding for much of the government. Included in a working version of the bill is language that would exempt premium cigars from FDA control. However, the negotiations are done in private and they are ongoing. As such, there’s no guarantee the language will remain in the final version of the bill. The cigar industry has asked its consumers to call Congressional leaders to make sure the language stays in the bill. Under FDA regulation, a myriad of potentially catastrophic things could happen including a massive slowdown in new products, the end of limited production, the removal of up to half of the cigars currently sold on the market and the eventual shut down of many smaller companies. 2. WHAT WOULD BE EXEMPTED? It’s believed the definition of “premium cigars” included in the bill is much more appropriate than the proposed ...
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