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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS
MAY/JUNE 2012
25,000 signatures by May 11, 2012
to get an official response from the
administration,” said Spann. “Please
sign this petition—we are almost
halfway there, but we need a total team
effort from every cigar lover in the
nation,” he added.
Everyone involved works tirelessly
to educate legislators on how FDA
regulation of premium cigars will affect
both the industry and the economy. “If
the FDA regulates premium cigars, it
will have a tremendous and devastating
impact on a multigenerational industry
and on 85,000 jobs in the U.S. alone,”
says Spann. “The average tobacconist
employs 5.3 employees and so many of
these are family-owned mom and pop
businesses. This onerous legislation
could entirely wipe out the industry.”
Additionally, there are 250,000
jobs in the Latin American countries
that make these fine products, so
regulation in the U.S. would have the
unintended consequence of damaging
the economic and political stability of
those nations as well.
“On the state legislative level, we
work with the Cigar Association
of America (CAA) and their state
lobbyists,” he explains. “We have paid
lobbyists in six states and CAA has
lobbyists in 45 states so there are big
economies of scale for our members
when we cooperate,” said Spann.
To help protect the industry, the
IPCPR has spent an average of
$800,000 per year on federal and state
legislative efforts over the last decade.
The effort appears to be paying off.
There is now considerable support
in Congress for H.R. 1639 (critical
legislation to protect small business
retail cigar shop owners from FDA
regulation) and S. 1461 (a similar bill
currently before the House). In fact,
there are currently 162 co-sponsors for
the House Bill, says Spann, who notes
that the support is “solidly bipartisan.”
“If you look at the list of co-sponsors,
you will see everything from freshman
Tea Party members to longtime
liberal members. It is a lot of people
who would not normally be on a list
together.”
While the industry’s efforts have
been instrumental in the success
to date, Spann also points out that
the appeal of the legislation—once
legislators understand the issue—is
broad. “This is an issue of American
values on two sides of the same coin,”
he says. “On one side there is the small
business owner, a man or woman with
an absolute right to sell a legal product
at a fair price without government
interference, and on the other side is an
adult of legal age making a conscious
choice to enjoy these artisan products.”
“In the worst economic times this
country has seen since the Great
Depression, I cannot fathom that the
government we elected and we fund
“In the worst economic times...
since the Great Depression, I cannot
fathom that the government we
elected and we fund as citizens
would take a swipe at just under
100,000 Americans.”