April 25, 2014 — On April 24, 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released proposed regulations to extend the authority of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, to additional tobacco products. Currently, the agency oversees cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco. The FDA released two options for consideration during the 75 day public comment period, effective today. Option 1 would extend the agency’s regulatory authority to all categories of tobacco products including cigars, pipe tobacco, electronic cigarettes, nicotine gels, hookah tobacco and dissolvables. Related accessories, such as lighters, cutters, and carriers, are not included in the regulation. Option 2 would extend the FDA’s regulatory authority to all of these categories of tobacco products, excluding premium cigars and related accessories. Under Option 2, premium cigars are defined as wrapped in whole tobacco leaf; contains a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder; contains primarily long filler tobacco; is made by combining manually the wrapper, filler, and binder; has no filter, tip, or non-tobacco mouthpiece and is capped by hand; has a retail price (after any discounts or coupons) of no less than $10 per cigar; does not have a characterizing flavor ...
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