Heard in the Humidor: For the week of March 3-7, 2008

New Hampshire cigar shop owners fight a proposed wholesale tax; can Arizona's Smoke-Free Act be applied to cigar shops that sell alcohol?

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Los Angeles – The Manchester (N.H.) Union-Leader put it this way:

"David Garofalo of Londonderry, owner of the Two Guys Smoke Shop chain, moved his shop from Boston across the state line to Salem after Massachusetts put him out of business with a cigar tax in 1996. Now New Hampshire is about to do it to him again."

The state legislature is considering House Bill 1510, which would impose a 60-percent tax on the wholesale price of all cigars. Wrote the newspaper, "The tax would apply to all inventory, not just each cigar sold. So a dealer such as Garofalo, with an 8,500-square-foot store and thousands of cigars in stock, would suddenly have to hand tens of thousands of dollars to the state for the privilege of continuing to do business."

Said Garofalo: "We will be out of business the day before the tax goes into place. That's a promise. We can't pay it." He and the other New Hampshire cigar shop owners are fighting the bill, which is scheduled to come to the House floor this week.

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The suit filed by Magnum’s Cigars, Wine & Liquor of Phoenix, Arizona, against the state’s Department of Health Services over its interpretation of the voter-passed Arizona Smoke-Free Act of 2006 turns out to be about more than a single cigar store that has a small bar in it.

The East Valley Tribune reported in late February that "Craig Jones, owner of Matchstix Fine Cigars in Chandler, is openly defying repeated warnings from health inspectors to either stop selling beer and wine from the tiny refrigerator in the back of his store, or tell his customers to smoke outside. "‘It's the principle of the thing,’ he says in short, rapid-fire bursts that pause when he takes a puff from a fat cigar in his hand. ‘They can't write the law.’"

The state’s Health Services Department sent notices to about 70 businesses last October that either food or beverage service in the store is in violation of the Smoke-Free Act. And inspectors have been handing out violation notices to stores, although Matchstix has not been fined as yet.

Kraig Marton, the attorney for Magnum, said that the state is "trying to read things into the statute that just aren't there." The head of the Health Services department’s epidemiology and disease control division, Don Herrington, according to the story, "acknowledged the law's wording doesn't specifically ban smoking at tobacco shops selling alcohol, but he said the agency will prevail because it will be difficult to convince a judge that tobacco shops serving food or alcohol shouldn't be considered restaurants or bars." So, a convenience store is a restaurant or a bar, Mr. Herrington?

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The heavily-promoted Camacho Corojo 10th Anniversary line is expected to be in stores by March 28, according to Camacho Cigars.

Like its sibling, the Camacho Corojo, the 10th Anniversary line is made from all Corojo tobacco grown in Honduras. This blend is considered medium-to-full in body with a rich and creamy flavor and will be offered in boxes of 21 in four sizes: 4 1/2 inches by 50 ring; 6 inches by 54 ring (torpedo); 11/18 (6 inch by 54-ring perfecto) and 6 inches by 60 ring.

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Short fillers: London’s Metropolitan Police have opened an investigation into the removal of a cigar case from the bombed-out home of former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in 2003. Who took it? None other than the current Tory Party challenger in the London Mayoral race, Boris Johnson. And, of course, since he’s ahead in some polls of incumbent Ken Livingstone, Johnson smells a rat. "What this shows is a concerted effort by my political opponents to waste police time by dragging up an article that I wrote five years ago and trying to make political mileage out of it. When knife crime is on the rise in our capital city, can it be right that police time is allowed to be wasted in this way?" Johnson wrote an article for the Daily Telegraph in 2003 in which he admitted taking the case as a souvenir. The police sent a letter to Johnson which reads in part, "Police attention has been drawn to reports suggesting that you have in your possession an item that may be Iraqi cultural property, namely a cigar case from the address of Tariq Aziz." Iraqi cultural property? Tariq Aziz? Johnson said in his 2003 article that "If he wants it, I suppose he can have it back." Aziz is reported as still in custody after being captured in 2003, so Johnson can still be said to be holding the case for him. But the intrigue will go right on until elections are held on May 1 . . . find our latest tasting review, of four blends including the Illusione and Roxor Deluxe lines, in our News & Views archives for February 29.

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Heard in the Humidor is a publication of Perelman, Pioneer & Company. Copyright 2008; All rights reserved.

Cigar Cyclopedia

3/3/08

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