The Lunacy Of Anti-Smoking Regulations
Just when we thought we had heard it all, new prohibitions on cigar smoking have emerged that simply make us scratch our heads in confusion. These restrictions are happening in two parts of the United States, and the concern is that they could spread.
The first example is in Minneapolis, a city of more than 400,000 people. If you wish to smoke a cigar in a cigar lounge in that city, a new law is going to limit you to 15 minutes of puffing. That’s right: 15 minutes to smoke a cigar.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey signed several tobacco-control measures into law this spring, measures that were created by Minneapolis city councilwoman LaTrisha Vetaw. At the root of the changes was a large increase on cigarette prices, to $15 a pack, among the highest in the United States. But, as typically happens, when cigarettes are targeted, uninformed politicians take cigars along for the ride. In the case of Minneapolis, the new law brings with it a limit of 15 minutes for smoking in a cigar lounge. So yes, you’re free to light up, but you need to stop smoking after a quarter of an hour. That’s not even enough time to put much of a dent in a petit corona. The law is scheduled to go into effect on December 1.
Cigar smokers don’t smoke cigars in 15 minutes. Cigar smoking is about enjoying companionship and socializing—to put a limit on that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. It’s foolish policy, clearly crafted by clueless lawmakers.
Minneapolis, despite its relatively large size, has only one cigar lounge, so this law doesn’t affect many. The shop, called Anthony’s Pipe and Cigar Lounge, is fighting the ordinance. Good for Anthony’s. Cigars are a legal product, and this attack on a legal product should not stand without a fight.
A more disturbing anti-smoking movement is taking place outside of Boston. Our reporting has discovered a spreading ring of municipalities instituting generational tobacco bans, which means a law crafted to ensure that no one born after a mandated date will ever become old enough to legally buy a cigar or other tobacco product, even at 100 years old. It sounds ludicrous, but it’s something that is happening in an increasing number of places, including Brookline, Stoneham, Wakefield and Melrose. These towns, most of them about a half hour from Boston, are instituting bans that will forever prohibit citizens born after a certain date, such as January 1, 2004, from ever buying tobacco.
Bans such as these may sound silly or bizarre. But there are politicians out there who have made it their goal to eradicate what is a legal product for adults: cigars and other tobacco products. Just as more and more cities and towns are embracing marijuana, a drug that is banned for recreational use by roughly half of the United States, more and more are making it harder for cigar smokers.
We receive hundreds of photos depicting fathers ing the pleasure and tradition of cigar smoking down to their sons and daughters. These laws aim to end that ritual. Cigars are a legal product. Ridiculous laws such as these need to be opposed. Don’t let the politicians deny us our rights.
