Tobacco.org

• Cigar shops fret over higher taxes, smoking laws 

NEW ORLEANS -- With the world becoming ever less welcoming for tobacco smoke of all kinds, the owners of specialty shops that sell premium cigars have converged on New Orleans with the same concerns as mass-market cigarette manufacturers - higher taxes and anti-smoking laws.

The cigars at the annual trade show of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association are not the packaged stogies found in an isolated corner of a convenience store. These are hand-rolled smokes - sometimes with Cuban seed tobacco grown in a non-embargoed country - that can go from a couple of bucks to $30 each.

"It's tough," said Chris McCalla, legislative director for Columbus, Ga.-based IPCRA, which represents about 1,500 tobacco stores. "People view us in the same category of cigarettes. With a cigar, it's different. It's a pleasurable experience. It's socialization of sorts." . . .

As for the convention itself, which is hosting about 4,000 people through Wednesday, smoking will be allowed in the exhibit hall between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. But members of the public aren't invited to the meeting - and no one under 18 will be let in, McCalla said.

Jump to full article »