FDA prepares to issue a final rule prohibiting flavored cigars

[El Presidente]

 

New Report: Tobacco Companies Have Flooded the Market with Cheap, Flavored Cigars that Appeal to Kids

FDA Urged to Finalize Rule Prohibiting Flavored Cigars
October 04, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the FDA prepares to issue a final rule prohibiting flavored cigars, a new report issued today by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies documents how tobacco companies have flooded the market with cheap, flavored cigars that appeal to kids and have used a variety of marketing strategies to attract young people.

Sales of all cigars more than doubled between 2000 and 2021, largely driven by increased sales of smaller cigars, many of which are flavored. The hundreds of flavored cigars make up about half the cigar market, with flavors ranging from fruit punch and grape to “Berry Fusion,” “Iced Donut” and “Cherry Dynamite.” These flavored cigars are colorfully packaged, widely available and priced as cheaply as 3 for 99 cents, increasing their appeal to price-sensitive kids.

These flavored products have helped make cigars the second most popular tobacco product among youth, after e-cigarettes. About 500,000 youth currently use cigars, and each day, more than 800 youth try cigar smoking for the first time. Black youth have the highest rates of cigar smoking, with Black high school students using cigars at 1.5 times the rate of White high schoolers.

The report comes as the FDA is about to issue a final rule prohibiting flavored cigars. The FDA announced a proposed rule in April 2022 based on evidence that cigar use poses serious health risks, flavors increase the appeal of cigars and make them easier to use, especially for youth, and removing flavored cigars from the market would reduce the number of youth who smoke cigars. Flavors are already prohibited in cigarettes except for menthol-flavored cigarettes, which the FDA is also proposing to prohibit.

[Grimlock]

Those cigars are being used for blunt wrappers, they're not smoking them as is... 

[Nevrknow]

6 minutes ago, Grimlock said:

Those cigars are being used for blunt wrappers, they're not smoking them as is... 

Nailed it.

[TacoSauce]

12 minutes ago, Grimlock said:

Those cigars are being used for blunt wrappers, they're not smoking them as is... 

This is mostly true. However I know a lot of cigar smokers who favor the ACID line from Drew Estates -- none of them are kids. Myself, I would always keep a box of the Avanti Anisette cigars around until my state banned them outright. I haven't been a kid for some time.

[Grimlock]

2 minutes ago, TacoSauce said:

This is mostly true. However I know a lot of cigar smokers who favor the ACID line from Drew Estates -- none of them are kids. Myself, I would always keep a box of the Avanti Anisette cigars around until my state banned them outright. I haven't been a kid for some time.

I agree. I was referring to the convenience store stock in the photo that cost next to nothing. I don't see a kid (or adult) paying $10 for a Fat Bottom Betty only to dump it out and use the wrapper.

[Nevrknow]

1 hour ago, TacoSauce said:

This is mostly true. However I know a lot of cigar smokers who favor the ACID line from Drew Estates -- none of them are kids. Myself, I would always keep a box of the Avanti Anisette cigars around until my state banned them outright. I haven't been a kid for some time.

Better stock up then, because for the most part, they are just blunt wrappers. Plain and simple. We are talking about the photo, not Acid ( legitimate ) cigars. I'm going out on a limb and saying that 99% of the "flavored cigars" they are talking about is the blunt kind. Not what anyone here would consider a " real " cigar.

[NSXCIGAR]

4 hours ago, Nevrknow said:

because for the most part, they are just blunt wrappers

The fact that these doofuses actually think kids are "smoking" flavored cigars reveals how out of touch with anything resembling reality these pencil pushing bureaucrats are. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Kids are not allowed to buy tobacco.  How about prosecute minors and their parents for breaking the law instead of banning products adults enjoy?

[NSXCIGAR]

10 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Kids are not allowed to buy tobacco.  How about prosecute minors and their parents for breaking the law instead of banning products adults enjoy?

Hey now, I started smoking cigars at 12! Premiums at 13 or 14.

I will say my parents would not have been happy if they knew.