Premium Tobacco Association Calls Proposed Smoking Ban ‘Unnecessary’
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Kevin Godbee - Apr 29, 2011
- 1 min read
Rockville, Maryland – A resolution to adopt a proposed Montgomery County, Maryland Board of Health smoking ban regulation will be the subject of a public hearing May 5 by the Health and Human Services Committee of the County Council . The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association has branded the proposed regulation as ‘ridiculous, unnecessary and overreaching.’
The proposed regulation would prohibit smoking in certain common areas of multiple-family residential dwellings. A common area is defined as ‘any indoor area of a multiple-family residential dwelling which is accessible to the occupants of more than one dwelling, including a hall, lobby, or laundry room.’ The regulation would also prohibit smoking within 25 feet of a playground area near such multiple-family dwellings.
“Legislated smoking bans are an affront to freedom loving citizens everywhere. It should be left to the property owners to determine whether or not smoking would be allowed in these areas,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR, as association of some 2,000 retailers and manufacturers of premium cigars, pipes, fine tobaccos and related accoutrements.
The resolution maintains that the proposed ban “is necessary to protect the health of residents in the County.”
“Ridiculous,” said McCalla. “Secondhand smoke is hardly problematic from a health standpoint. However, people who smoke – whether it is cigarettes, fine cigars or aromatic pipes – should be courteous to others. Courtesy and civility should prevail, not onerous legislation that some would say is unconstitutional.”
McCalla cited the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s own standard for safe levels of secondhand smoke which is up to 25,000 times higher than levels normally found in establishments like bars and restaurants where smoking is allowed.
He called on all Montgomery County residents to voice their opposition to the regulation by notifying their County Council members or by calling 240-777-7803 to sign up to testify at the hearing on Thursday at 7:30pm at 100 Maryland Avenue.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. 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If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. 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It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
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A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
“Henceforth every multiple-family residential dwelling shall be provided with a workout gym, and every resident shall exercise vigorously for 2 hours, 3 times a week. Further, every resident shall eat only meals approved by the state of Maryland, and that shall contain the prescribed portion of tofu to the exclusion of all animal products. Further, as a sign of compliance and loyalty to the state of Maryland, all residents shall wear the prescribed uniform and cap, including an armband to be worn in the prescribed manner, prominently displaying the newly adopted state of Maryland symbol, the swastika.”
I have come to believe that Maryland is now getting to be worse than California and New York. I have come to loathe this state.
Well, I am GLAD I, and all of my family, moved out of Rockville, MD. What next “JACK BOOTED FRIENDS” knocking on private citizens doors to check if they are smoking. HOLY SHIT. I am Starting to feel very sorry that I was schooled 1st through 12th grades and some College in that friggin town. Makes me grateful I now live in Florida where I can SMOKE, DRINK, and Carry a Firearm Legally. Then they wonder why Idiot Politicians get shot……
Wow crazy things are going on in this country, state by state.