At a time when jobless rates, homelessness, and American hunger rates are at an all time high is it really necessary to create new legislature that will increase taxes on American citizens and allow government to grow even bigger?

The FDA's proposal to regulate the premium cigar industry is planning to do just that.

If the FDA succeeds the regulations that will follow are:
Ban all walk-in humidors
Ban cigar events where free samples are given
Impose new 'user fees' on cigar
Mandate any new cigar blends be submitted to the FDA for approval
Limits on nicotine levels on cigars
Ban of online sales of cigars
Anything else deemed necessary by the FDA and Secretary of Health and Human Services Czar

These regulations will effect every tax paying citizen in the US because who do you think will pay for the increased government workers to regulate the mandates? These mandates will also affect men and women, alike, who look forward to unwinding at the end of the day or during the weekend with a good cigar. They will affect everyone from the average, middle-class citizen to the upper class.

The FDA claims that this regulation is to protect the American youth and public from the dangers of cigar smoke. What they fail to state is that underage smoking is at an all time low. Premium cigars are not marketed to children. Not only are children not permitted in cigar shops without the accompaniment of adults (many cigar shops do not permit children period), the price range of premium cigars provides a barrier for youth to purchase.

By banning walk-in humidors, patrons will have to recall cigars by name and have the store clerk get them from a back store room ruining the comradery between store patron and sales associate due to time spent walking through the humidor discussing preferred flavors, sizes, etc. Patrons will no longer have that visceral satisfaction of touching and smelling that 'perfect' cigar before a purchase.

By banning cigar events, consumers, manufacturers, and retailers will not be able to commingle preventing manufacturers from hearing what the consumer and retailer need. The retailer will not get a 'feel' for what is popular or what could be an upcoming best seller by seeing the reaction the people give. Consumers will not get to meet other like-minded individuals that they may never get a chance to see and they will not get to see the individuals responsible for creating a consumable work of art. Cigars, after all, require hundreds of caring individual's hands to grow from seed, age, ferment, roll, transport, market, and finally sell.

Requiring new blends to be pre-approved by the FDA will destroy small "boutique" businesses that do not have the overhead to provided funding and years of research to be regulated.

Premium cigars are 100% tobacco. They do not contain the hundreds of chemicals added to cigarettes making them more addictive and cancerous. They are a pure product that is meant for savoring and not for that "quick fix".

Cigars are enjoyed in moderation by men and women who often chose to smoke a cigar because of a celebration such as marriage or a child being born.

Small businesses that allow smoking within their property are at risk for being shut down if this regulation passes. America is built upon the rights of its citizens. If a citizen doesn't want to be around persons smoking, it is their right to go to another establishment. The right to choose should never be taken out of the American citizen's hand and given over to bureaucracy. Terrible things occur when Government acts on behalf of its citizens.

This regulation could usher in a whole new "Prohibition Era" level of organized crime. Where, instead of bootleggers and "made men" running liquor through the US and shooting it out with regulators using Tommy guns in public arenas, there will be organized gang members running tobacco products from South America using military assault rifles and automatic weapons. The tobacco will be adulterated to cut costs and increase profits at the expense of the consumer’s health.

If anything should be taken away from the Prohibition Era and Volstead Act, it is that prohibition does not work. It provides opportunities for the criminal underground to benefit and expand.

In summation, this nation has enough social and economic problems to spend taxpayer's money growing government branches to regulate a small and responsible percentage of law-abiding citizens.

America needs more jobs and opportunities for employment instead of closing down businesses that support thousands of individuals from the tobacco farmer in PA and NC, the truck drivers distributing the product, to the family run shops selling artisanal cigars to responsible adults.

Every American should realize the importance of keeping their best intersts in their own hands and not the government's.

To read the full version of the actual bill itself being given to the House of Representatives (H. R. 1639), please copy and paste the following address in your web browser:
http://tinyurl.com/7oghy7z

To read the full version of the bill being given to the United States Senate (S. 1461), please copy and paste the following address in your web browser:
http://tinyurl.com/6p3n36o

Please support the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2011.