FDA Draft Guidance on the Prohibition of Distributing Free Samples

[woodsroad]

FDA Draft Guidance on the Prohibition of Distributing Free Samples
As a partner in the Standard Tobacco Co. of Pennsylvania, this one has me livid. One of the things that has brought me great happiness over the past two years is meeting pipe smokers at shows and clubs around the US and being able to offer them up a sample of out wares. That's where the brotherhood, camaraderie and sense of accomplishment starts: meeting the people who are the best judges of our efforts and listening to their comments on our work. That's where we have the opportunity to listen, go back to the drawing board and out-do ourselves the next time around. Let's hope that more sensible, less partisan and more rational voices can prevail at the FDA, so that the passionate and dedicated pipe tobacco entrepreneurs across this great country of ours can continue the work that has made this the Golden Age of Pipe Tobacco.

 

[warren]

I'm actually a bit sanguine about your chances. Not sure why though. Perhaps it's simply because you guys are worthy of a bit of success.

 

[p4ttythep3rf3ct]

Doesn't it say you can do so at a private club with membership dues? Am I reading that correctly? Tobacco prizes as a result of Contests and Games are fair game as well. Excerpt:
"

Membership and rewards programs that provide discounts to tobacco product purchasers are also

not prohibited by the free sample ban as long as they do not result in distribution of tobacco

products outside of a tobacco product sales transaction subject to minimum age and ID

requirements.

"
I suppose a website could sponsor a contest for first whatever # orders gets coupons for free x ,y,and z products with their next purchase. Maybe?

 

[lestrout]

yo p4
I'm afraid the traditional top prize of a pipe at Slow Smoking Events is also endangered, since the damnable FDA has deemed pipes as tobacco products.
hp

les

 

[papipeguy]

I'm perplexed about the exclusion from the rule on free samples for smokeless tobacco. I suppose it has nothing to do with John Behner being on the board of Reynolds American. Now that BAT is buying out the Reynolds remaining ownership big tobacco is basically down to 4 companies.

 

[jackswilling]

One dollar sample

Two bit sample

 

[ashdigger]

In Utah when they had even more draconian drinking laws than they do now, when when you wanted to drink in a club you'd have to be a "member". They usually charged $1 to join and the membership card had a $1 coupon on it for your first drink. If you wanted say a Jack & Coke, they'd serve an "airline" split and a glass of coke with ice, you then added the Jack. Problem solved.
If membership is what they require, then it can't be too hard to make membership cards and other crap that makes it legal.

 

[yaddy306]

One dollar sample

Two bit sample

Exactly!
Or sell the tin (after checking ID, of course), let the purchaser load a bowl, then give them a refund.

 

[swhipple]

I scanned through the guidance and as far as I can see it just says you have to sell the samples. 1 cent or 1 dollar samples seem the way to go.

 

[lestrout]

How about a buffet approach? Change the attendee (or member) x bucks on entrance, and he/she can put what he/she wants on his/her plate/bowl.
hp

les

 

[jvnshr]

I'm actually a bit sanguine about your chances. Not sure why though. Perhaps it's simply because you guys are worthy of a bit of success.

+1

 

[gloucesterman]

As annoying as it may be, the FDA is still a beauroracy bound up by its own rules and procedures. For every set of guidelines they put out we can find a way around them with a little creative thinking. Instead of seeing it as another burden, we should see it as a challenge. Game on!

 

[woodsroad]

While all of your suggestions are good, and I greatly appreciate the monkey-wrenching creative subversion approach, we have to keep in mind that the FDA guidelines are not law, and that the FDA can enforce their rulemaking as they see fit. They have made clear that the purpose of the Tobacco Control Act is to eliminate tobacco from the marketplace, and that they have a mandate to bring that to fruition. That said, we do want to find ways of making sampling work, but without getting slammed by the 800 pound gorilla, so please keep the ideas coming!

 

[mso489]

I am totally mystified by the notion of the FDA enforcing micro-regulations on a very small cohort, pipe smokers, when FDA can't get around to mega food processing plants for inspections with their current staff more than once every 75 years. Perhaps some agency will send someone around to supervise my safe tying of a bow tie. This whole effort makes zero sense. We need the late Joseph Heller, author of "Catch 22" to capture this in prose. The mega food processing plants reach more people in a week with their products than the total population of pipe smokers in the U.S.

 

[woodsroad]

Food processing plants are not an ideological issue.

Tobacco is.

 

[mrboots]

Yaddy, may run into state law on that one. Some states do not allow for the refund of tobacco products. I guess you could issue a store credit. IDK...just thinking outloud

 

[warren]

Some of these will adversely impact your bottom line. Simply pay samplers to be your testers. Buck a bowl or some such. Two cents a bowl? Should be a tax deductible expense.
What's the possibility of affiliating with charitable organization. A fifty dollar donation and the donor gets the tee (blanket, whatever) and a sample if the donation is made through your website.
Load a pickup full of the tobacco and have an accident at the front door of a pipe club, on meeting night.
Attend the Chicago show wearing cargo pants loaded with small baggies of your selected blend. Punch holes in pockets and stroll through the main room. No intent, no crime, right? Accidents will happen.
Geo tag a bunch of the blend and hide them around the country, 2 bucks for the locations.
Fill a store room full of samples, leave the door unlocked and leak the location to Julian Assange.
Sell a few pounds to your corporation and present them as Christmas presents to your "extended" family. Thanks cuz! Any holiday or birthday should suffice.
No one, even the governments, can fault a friend sharing with a friend. (Check your friend requests this site please.)

 

[winton]

How much would 1/4 oz package of Warhorse cost, if it was available at a pipe show? How about if you sold the tobacco to the organizers of a pipe show and they gave it out? You would certainly be welcome to explain the features of the tobacco.

 

[gloucesterman]

The one thing we all want to keep in mind is that if the regulation doesn't say you can't then you can. As I have suggested that leaves a wide number of alternative approaches to be exploited. The FDA can regulate what a business does but personal conduct is quite another matter. There is also the fair market value consideration. If I want to try a tobacco, a ten cent 1/4 oz. bag isn't going to be a big deterrent to doing that. Show promoters can include several coupons into the entry fee, redeemable for the bowl of tobacco of your choice. We need to drive them crazy by continually morphing our behaviors to circumvent their rules. As the Marines are fond of saying "adapt, improvise and overcome. Keep sending them back to the drawing boards until it looks like they don't have a clue (67th set of rules in three years)or it's clear to even the most casual observer that they are on a witch hunt.

 

[woodsroad]

How much would 1/4 oz package of Warhorse cost

Since War Horse was not sold in bulk prior to 8-8-16, the FDA now forbids it's sale.