After making several attempts to regulate the sale of electronic cigarettes in the country, the FDA is now going after cigars. Cigar smokers and the cigar industry in the country could suffer heavily if such a ban is imposed. Talks of increasing the prices of cigars and shutting down several small sized shops that sell cigars are in progress. This not only compromises the freedom of the smokers but could also render thousands of people jobless.
After their petition to include graphic images as warning to scare the smokers away from cigarettes got rejected, FDA is now attempting to regulate the sale of cigars. Disagreeing with the way the FDA is regulating tobacco products, the cigar industry is also taking help of the Congress members to gather as much support as possible. With only a few weeks remaining before the decision on cigars, cigar shops are sending out millions of emails to customers, nudging them to encourage their Congress representatives to join in the protests.
These efforts turned out to be successful so far as the Congress has received well over 113, 000 messages. This overwhelming response has resulted in several members to join the movement. Currently, four senators and 125 house members are in support of the cause. The group of supporters in the Congress also include twenty six Democrats, six Congress physicians and two nurses. A regulation to ban long distance sales of cigars could also be imposed by next week.
The bill currently devised by the support group will currently focus on making premium cigars an exception in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) signed in 2009 by President Barrack Obama. Since the approval of TCA, the FDA had more power to regulate tobacco products. Recently, the FDA even attempted to term the electronic cigarette as a tobacco product even though they do not contain any tobacco or any harmful substances.
