FDA Regs Affecting Pipe Tobacco

[Emperor Zurg]

Not to mention all the good recent tobaccos are going to get scarce fast, as people stockpile them...

Guilty.

[Branzig]

The vape industry is big. Lots of people in that community are going to fight this. They may have the time, money, and resources to attack head on. Cigars as well.

Sadly, pipers are such a small community, I don't know if we stand a chance.

Of course, the best plan of action is for all 3 industries to ban together and form a coalition. We will see if that happens.

Fun fact! One of the biggest lobbyist groups pushing for this to go through belongs to ooooooo RJ Reynolds. They're sick of losing revenue to fake "RYO" pipe tobaccos, and they want them gone. Less cheap RYO, more cigarette sales.

RJ also want Internet sales gone-zo as well.

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[droy1958]

The vape industry is big. Lots of people in that community are going to fight this. They may have the time, money, and resources to attack head on. Cigars as well.

Sadly, pipers are such a small community, I don't know if we stand a chance.

Of course, the best plan of action is for all 3 industries to ban together and form a coalition. We will see if that happens.

Fun fact! One of the biggest lobbyist groups pushing for this to go through belongs to ooooooo RJ Reynolds. They're sick of losing revenue to fake "RYO" pipe tobaccos, and they want them gone. Less cheap RYO, more cigarette sales.

RJ also want Internet sales gone-zo as well.

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It's just like the beer industry. Make it too expensive for the smaller companies to compete....Our forefathers would be shitting their pants.....

[Emperor Zurg]

Well I don't know about you people but I saw this coming a few years back. I've stockpiled enough pipe tobacco to supply half a dozen 40 year old, bowl-a-day pipe smokers with a decent variety of tobaccos for the rest of their lives... or to supply Jim Inks for a month...

If this only affects '07 and newer blends, I'm assuming my favorite blenders, Gawith Hoggarth and Samuel Gawith will be largely unaffected for the time being. That leaves me time, $$$ permitting, to stockpile even MOAR rope, twist and flake The thing that worries me is, if the '07 and newer bakkies are taken off the market, that will shift demand by default to these older, grandfathered blends - which will cause the price to skyrocket; just what the FDA wants.

[Branzig]

Don't know if any of you guys remember the "Gawith shortages" when anything Gawith was being bought up faster than Penzance at a dollar store....but I foresee that coming back.

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[cpmcdill]

It's a dire situation. I understand that both the cigar and pipe tobacco companies are lobbying for a moratorium on the date of enforcement, and are additionally trying to get the cut-off date moved from 2007 to at least 2014 or '15. There may be some haggling on the date, but it remains to be seen what happens. I do think the '07 date is arbitrary and just meant to hurt the industry, as that was around the time the pipe and cigar industries had a genuine renaissance after the late-90s boom. The boom brought new smokers to existing brands, but it took almost a decade for the tobacco farms and producers to meet demand and present new and interesting leaves for blenders to create new products with (plus the return of Perique from the brink of extinction).

[Branzig]

Just read that Altria (Phillip Morris) is full on supporting the FDA in their pursuit of shutting down vaping, ecigs, pipes, and cigars. They feel that "anything to stop introducing nicotine to the youth is a worthwhile and just cause."

They particularly want to put an end to the ecigs market....hmm any coincidence that the ecig/vape market is cutting severely into their profits? I think not....

All big tobacco lobbyists are after the same thing here. Getting back their market share. If they can gut out cigar and pipe competition too, then why not?

I realize that pipe/cigar consumers are not the same consumer as cigarette smokers. But some pipe smokers are addicted to nicotine. And they may turn to cigarettes to curb their need.

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[BryGuySC]

New thought.
What about brands that have been transitioned to new manufacturers etc. , like Escudo; or Dunhill, which was re-introduced to the US in 2010 I think?

[T.E.Fox]

I have heard the the dollar figure for a new product to go through the hoops is not cheap. Like quarter-of-a-million-dollars not cheap. Don't quote me on that, but it certainly would not surprise me. That shuts out nearly any and all new blends. Most artisan blends would be lucky to have a turnover of that kind of money, let alone enough profit to justify that kind of expenditure. It's just a way to stop the progress of the industry without actually outlawing anything.

If someone like Smokingpipes got together in a duty free part of Switzerland, we would almost be able to see this through. Sure all the blenders would have to conduct business off of US soil, but that's just a hurdle...

[droy1958]

I have heard the the dollar figure for a new product to go through the hoops is not cheap. Like quarter-of-a-million-dollars not cheap. Don't quote me on that, but it certainly would not surprise me. That shuts out nearly any and all new blends. Most artisan blends would be lucky to have a turnover of that kind of money, let alone enough profit to justify that kind of expenditure. It's just a way to stop the progress of the industry without actually outlawing anything.

If someone like Smokingpipes got together in a duty free part of Switzerland, we would almost be able to see this through. Sure all the blenders would have to conduct business off of US soil, but that's just a hurdle...

It would be a lot like the CC market. It just sucks we're going through this in America....