What is banned?
On November 22, 2009 the FDA snatched up yet another one of our Civil Liberties by making clove cigarettes illegal. This ban doesn’t just apply to clove cigarettes, though. All products that meet the description in section 907(a)(1)(A) of the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” as quoted below are banned.
Section 907(a)(1)(A) states:
“…a cigarette or any of its component parts (including the tobacco, filter, or paper) shall not contain, as a constituent (including a smoke constituent) or additive, an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke.”
So what does this mean, exactly?
All Djarum Clove cigarettes are now illegal. Djarum Black, Special, Vanilla, Cherry, Brown, Cappuccino, Super, Light, Bali Hai, Brown, Menthol – all are now illegal in the US. Kretek cigarettes are illegal in the US. Even Marlboro Kretek. In addition, all cigarette components that are flavored are now illegal with the exception of Menthol. Apparently Menthol is not considered a flavor. This applies to flavored filters, flavored rolling paper, and even the “roll your own” cigarette tobacco. It does not apply to Hookah tobacco – yet.
Djarum has produced an alternative to their previous clove cigarette in the form of what they are calling a cigar. The tobacco still has their usual spices and flavors, however the tobacco is cigar tobacco. It’s thicker, packed tighter, and has an entirely different flavor than the previous cigarette tobacco. It’s just not the same.
Better hurry up and get the last of the clove cigarettes while people are still selling them – I’ve seen Djarum cartons sell for upwards of $150/carton and $20/pack. To find clove cigarettes in your area, click on the “Buy & Sell Cloves” link at the top of the page in the navigation menu!
Is this really the “”Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” or is it the “Marlboro Preservation Act?”
I call bullshit on this ban. The premise is a smokescreen – that minors start smoking cloves and other flavored cigarettes because of the sweet taste is nonsense. I am 30 years old and I have only known 3 people in my life who smoke cloves. I don’t even know more than a handful of adults who smoke cloves. While I was in school, everyone smoked Marlboro Reds and scoffed at the notion of smoking a clove or flavored cigarette.
Get real! Vanilla cigarettes don’t taste like vanilla, and the attempt to flavor cigarettes with fruit flavors does not hide the taste of the tobacco. I’m sorry, but a flavored piece of rolling paper does not negate the strength of the tobacco taste by any means. Kids who start smoking don’t want to be seen as pussies smoking a peach flavored cigarette!
To prove my point even further, yesterday I was walking down the street and lit up a pre-ban clove cigarette when I was approached by a group of local junior high students who asked me if I had an extra cigarette. I told them, “I only have cloves” to which they replied, befuddled, “what’s a clove?”
So now the FDA has the power to regulate Tobacco. Great! Beware, people. The FDA is not on our side. They are not here to protect us. These are the people who have approved neurotoxins such as Aspartame, Sucralose (Splenda) and Saccharin. These are the people who refuse to acknowledge the usefulness of natural remedies that don’t harm the body and only promote dangerous chemical poisons known as pharmaceuticals. The FDA has declared that only PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS can prevent, cure and treat disease!
Do you trust the FDA? I sure as hell don’t.