Jump to full article: Nashua (NH) Telegraph, 2009-08-20
Author: HATTIE BERNSTEIN Staff Writer
Intro: Tobacco Haven isn't a cigarette manufacturer despite claims by the state, says the attorney for the small tobacco shop in Brookline facing an unusual legal action against its use of roll-your-own cigarette machines.
Acting Attorney General Orville "Bud" Fitch filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the tobacco shop in Merrimack County Superior Court, alleging that the operation sidesteps the federal settlement between tobacco manufacturers and the state.
The company has a pair of 4-foot tall "roll your own" machines in its store. Customers buy one of three types of loose tobacco and paper tubes with filters, then use the machines to turn them into cigarettes at about half the cost of name-brand cigarettes.
Jeffrey Burd, of Cincinnati, one of several lawyers who will represent Tobacco Haven in court, said this business doesn't make Tobacco Haven a manufacturer."Tobacco Haven rents its machine to customers. They can buy or rent," said Burd. He contrasted the shop's operation with a hypothetical cigarette manufacturer in North Carolina that can produce several hundred cigarettes in seconds, while it takes minutes to roll the same number at a tobacco shop.
Burd will make his case in Merrimack County Superior Court at 11 a.m. Oct. 13, when the state brings its case against the tobacco shop.
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