Cigars, Cigar Information and where to find Premium Cigars, Discounted Cigars and even Cheap Cigars

ANTI-TOBACCO’S NEWEST TARGET: CIGARS!

Plus: more Steals and Deals!

Los Angeles, October 10 – “The statistic that a quarter of young people are smoking them was eye-opening. If you look around, you realize they’re all over the place.”

“They” is John Middleton’s popular Black & Mild cigar brand, now a potential target of a Baltimore Health Department inquiry because of their popularity among young people.

According to a city report that cites data compiled by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Black & Mild cigars are smoked by 24 percent of African-American residents of Baltimore aged 18 to 24.

So what?

According to a report from the Associated Press, “Health officials said that Black & Milds are probably inhaled like a cigarette, rather than smoked with minimal inhalation like a cigar. They can be smoked, put out and smoked again. And they can be repacked with marijuana or other substances.”

The AP story also quotes Frances Stillman, the co-director of the Johns Hopkins anti-tobacco unit as saying that “I think there’s total confusion about what these products really are.”

So here is the newest target of the anti-tobacco forces, now racing against a legitimate cigar, albeit one that is machine-made, and is being consumed by adults! By adults!

The Black & Mild line, like its siblings Gold & Mild, Cherry Blend and Prince Albert, are small panatela-sized cigars, usually made with homogenized wrapper and binder, pipe tobacco fillers and offered in a natural flavor, but also as flavored cigars with apple, cream or wine flavors. Two sizes are available, the Fast Break (4 inches by 30 ring, introduced in 2006) and the more familiar Pipe-Tobacco cigar with a plastic tip (5 x 30). They’re generally sold in five-packs in convenience and drug stores and are carried by some smokeshops.

Lest there be any confusion, what the Baltimore Health Department folks are doing is nothing less than starting an inquiry into the use by adults of a legally-purchased item because they don’t like it.

In the face of clear data from the Centers for Disease Control Monograph on Cigars issued in 1998, the AP story includes this gem: “According to Baltimore health officials and Hopkins researchers, the cigars pose the same health risks as, or potentially more, than cigarettes.”

If the AP report is true, why do images of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and the “big lie” come to mind, especially in view of the data used for the report, which came from a survey of a very small sample of 187 young adults, not from the general public or even a designated area, but from a specific group of community centers!

This is a first step against cigars by the anti-tobacco crowd, convened within the context of a larger study which showed that while the smoking rate in Maryland statewide is about 20 percent, about 60 percent of “young adults” in Baltimore use tobacco products of some kind. And that, according to city officials, is bad. Apparently in Baltimore, adults now need to be trained – by the City – how to live properly. What happened to the land of the free?

More Steals, More Deals:
We had so many deals in our weekly review of top national merchants that we couldn’t keep them to just one day. So here’s some more good news on some high-profile brands from two national retailers you know well:

Cigars International:
Cigars International has a nice special on the Rocky Patel-made Vibe Corojo, an underrated blend that’s now $49.95 for all sizes:

• Cienfuegos from Rolando Reyes and his Puros Indios team:

> Blazer (6 x 52), in a box of 20 was $233.95, now $125.00 or try five for $25.00;

> Engine No. 5 (5 x 52), 20 was $197.95, now $125.00;

> Engine No. 6 (6 1/2 x 46), 20 was $215.95, now $125.00;

> Engine No. 7 (7 x 48), 20 was $199.00, now $125.00 and

> Hot Shot (5 x 50), 20 was $233.95, now $125.00.

• Indian Tabac Classic Tomahawk (6 x 52), in 25s was $49.95, now $41.95.

• Partagas Limited Reserve Decades, rarely seen online, but available at the best prices we have seen:

> No. I (4 1/2 x 49), in the box of 20 for $241.95;

> No. II (5 1/2 x 50), 20 for $303.95;

> No. III (6 3/4 x 43), 20 for $303.95 and

> No. IV (7 1/2 x 49), 20 for $325.95.

• Vibe Corojo from United Tobacco, from a blend by Rocky Patel:

> Corona (4 1/2 x 44), in boxes of 20 was $59.95, now $49.95;

> Robusto (5 x 52), 20 was $69.95, now $49.95;

> Toro Grande (6 x 58), 20 was $79.95, now $49.95 and

> Torpedo (5 1/2 x 54), 25 was $69.95, now $49.95.

Famous Smoke Shop:
There are many versions of the unique Gurkha brand, it’s hard to keep track. One of the more popular, and popularly-priced, style is the Ancient Warrior brand now on sale:

• Ancient Warrior El Duke (4 3/4 x 60), an extension of the famed Gurkha line, in a box of 20 now $95.95, best in our review.

• Serie 601 Maduro Blue Label Prominente (5 1/2 x 56), in a box of 20 was $170.95, now $152.95.
~ Rich Perelman

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