Jump to full article: Fairmont (MN) Sentinel, 2010-02-12
Author: Kylie Saari — Staff Writer
Intro: The brightly colored boxes and flip-top containers promise cherry, chocolate, mint and grape flavors. What they deliver are highly addictive, kid-attracting, disease-inducing tobacco in the form of mini-cigars.
That is according to a report released by ClearWay Minnesota and the Association for Nonsmokers - Minnesota, two nonprofit organizations dedicated to a smoke-free state.
Unfiltered, the first report of its kind, was released Wednesday and calls the tobacco companies out for alleged continued advertising to kids and teens.
The flavored mini-cigars out-maneuver laws that prohibit cigarette companies from mixing child-friendly flavors into their products. Mini-cigars are the same size as cigarettes, come in similar packaging, but are exempt from the laws simply because they are have tobacco in their wrapping, making them cigars, not cigarettes.
"People think it isn't an issue anymore," said Mike Sheldon, communications manager with ClearWay. "They are aggressively marketing to capture a new generation of smokers."
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