Jump to full article: Manchester (NH) Union-Leader, 2009-11-17
Author: SCOTT BROOKS New Hampshire Union Leader
Intro: A Brookline business that lets customers roll their own cigarettes has banned "pipe tobacco" from its rolling machines in response to a judge's order, the shop's lawyers said yesterday.
The court order takes away only a portion of the business Tobacco Haven has been doing, but it is a portion that is of particular concern to the state. The state Attorney General's Office, which sued the retailer in August, alleges it is illegal for Tobacco Haven to stuff "pipe tobacco" into cigarettes unless the company pays taxes on it.
The state has also argued that "pipe tobacco" is singularly dangerous because it was being sold at prices "so low that young people would have found them affordable."
"Not only did Tobacco Haven's plan violate the law, but it placed a dangerous and addictive product within the financial reach of vulnerable children," Attorney General Michael Delaney said in a statement yesterday.
Andrew Schulman, an attorney for Tobacco Haven, called the attorney general's statement "misleading and disingenuous."
"Children can't purchase tobacco products at any price," Schulman said. "It is against the law to do so."
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