Candy-flavoured cigarettes have long been banned, but candy-flavoured cigars are still legal.
The American Cancer Society is pushing to limit the sales of candy-flavoured tobacco products — cigars, chewing tobacco and loose tobacco leaf for water pipes — mostly because it’s well-known that these sweetened products are marketed not-so-subtly to teens. These sugary tobacco products are also suspiciously cheap (as in trying to be the gateway tobacco for kids.).
Honestly, I didn’t realize they made candy-flavoured chewing tobacco. I knew about Swisher Sweet cigars.
The state couldn’t ban candy-flavoured cigars, but they could ban them from convenience and grocery stores and mandate that they could only be sold in tobacco shops.
I have no idea if this will go anywhere, but if it does, New York would be the first state to restrict the sales of these products. New York is one the leading states in fighting tobacco. The state’s tobacco taxes are among the highest in the nation and New York City has the toughest anti-smoking laws in the country (partly because Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a health nut and anti-smoking zealot; I’m not sure I’m 100 % comfortable with all his proposals and tactics — such as trying to ban large sodas.)
And to think… I used to eat those candy-cigs as a kid.
Somewhere in my possession (home-office desk drawer or somewhere) there’s a match-book (been there for years, I don’t recall where I picked it up) from Camel that depicts some very happy, friendly-looking teenage-types with the caption “Nobody leaves here a stranger”… this was at a time (80’s or 90’s?) when Camel was really all-out marketing to teens. Disgusting!