**SERIOUSLY?**

[akujunkan]

Are cloves and bidis really illegal Stateside now? Seriously?

Way to add one more tiny addition to the list of Reasons Why I Should Stay in Asia, idiots.

That will be all.

Comments

[theosakakoneko.livejournal.com]

Since when? People still always smoke them at the club.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

As of the 24^th, I believe. (Incidentally, I first heard about it here (http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/142899).)

[shoebucket.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it made me sad too...

[shoebucket.livejournal.com]

Ooh - breaking news: it only impacts "cigarettes", so this company is thinking they can get around it by offering "filtered cigars" (same company that imports Djarum), which aren't covered by the ban: see here

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Which is a silver lining, but the point is, people who want to smoke clove cigarettes want to smoke clove cigarettes, not cigars.

This legislation pisses me off so much because it is fucktarded on every level. It won't decrease the number of smokers, because I don't know anyone who smokes cloves as a primary cigarette. Will it stop kids from smoking (which is their half-assed excuse for the ban)? No, because when it comes down to a cheapass pack of Lucky Strikes or an $8.50 pack of Djarums, what do you think kids are going to pick? Also, if you want to cut down on underage smokers, start by banning the cigarettes you don't have to go to a specialty tobacco shop to purchase.

The fact that the legislation explicitly exempts menthols from the flavored cigarettes category just goes to show that this is a sop being handed to Big Tobacco instead of any serious effort to cut down on smokers. So effing own up to it, Obama. You aren't fooling anyone.

Sorry for the bile. It's just that a) I think there's better things this administration could be doing with its time than giving handouts to Philip Morris, and b) if I'm going to be around smokers, I at least want the smoke to smell nice.

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

Remember though, as bad as it sounds, that cloves aren't smoked by a majority of one race or ethnicity *ahem...menthols and African American culture* and you know the company just couldn't afford to give up on the marketing of one whole demographic. Even Obama smoked menthols.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very true. I hadn't considered that angle. But it doesn't change the fact that this legislation has accomplished nothing. If Obama et.al. want to "get tough" on smoking, then they should fucking grow some balls and get tough on it, not hand a favor to Big Tobacco while patting themselves on the back for a useless law that, if it does anything, will send casual smokers into the arms of the cigarette companies.

[bran420-7.livejournal.com]

FOR THE WIN HONEY!

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

I understand the imputus for the initial decision: there is no way you can tell me that a strawberry cigarette from camel sold at a gas station for twenty cents each isn't intended for a fifteen year old girl. but cloves but not menthols is bullshit.

anyway, it doesn't matter what they call it. i'd be willing to bet there isn't an industry or government standard on what qualifies as a cigar verses a cigarette. There may be a definition, but if you put cigar on a pack of cigarettes, then what is it? It'll probably be allowed to sell. It'll end up being a ban with no teeth in a couple of years.

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

there is no way you can tell me that a strawberry cigarette from camel sold at a gas station for twenty cents each
Jesus crap, I had no idea such cigarettes even existed. The articles I'd read either only mentioned cloves exclusively, or cloves plus bidis. I didn't realise Camel was in on the game. (Perhaps their flavored cigs weren't getting the market share they'd hoped? After all, it's easier to agree to cut off your own finger if you've still got nine left.)

My understanding of the legal status of cigars versus cigarettes were that cigars differ in terms of the rolling paper and tobacco. And again, if Djarum etc. can circumvent the legislation by selling clove "cigars" that replace regular rolling paper with tobacco leaves (as in the article Nick linked above), then the U.S. gov't has still shot itself in the foot, because I imagine tobacco leaves are worse for you health-wise than rolling paper.

[wombatdeamor.livejournal.com]

agreed. but yes, such things did exist a few years ago. Mint and chocolate were the big ones, and for a while while we were in high school you could buy individual cigarettes in jolly rancher-esque flavors. I hated them, but I believe in suffering for my vices.

When you come home, we'll track down a pack of clove cigars and you can tell me if there's much of a difference. (the damn things give me a headache anyway, as you know.)

The stupid thing is that those flavored cigars get bought all the time for rolling blunts. Why are those allowed? You can't tell me the majority of minicigar smokers are smoking tobacco out of them.