The only way I don't see that happening is if the cigar lobby buys enough support to keep that from happening. Hell maybe it will end up like the Cuban cigar trade where we have to buy from over seas vendors and take our chances with US customs. I did that for a lot of years back when I was heavy into cigars. I had sources in Spain, Gibraltar, Lebanon, Switzerland, Australia and Hong Kong. I had around 4 or 5 seizures over the years but my sources always covered the loss.
It wouldn't shock me, but it would surprise me. What would not surprise me is a ban of on line sales. In this day of internet based sales, mail order catalogs are like the horse and buggy, but then again, if the various carrier services refuse to ship tobacco to end users, we'd have to rely on, gasp!, B&M's. Remember them?
People will be people, even on Facebook. Even these groups will likely be forced to cease their activities due to increased oversight of Facebook being suggested in the wake of their latest scandal.
Tis what I meant; not mail-order.
I wouldn't mind relying on B&Ms if the markups and taxes weren't as they are, particularly here in WA. If my ability to order tobacco online went away, I'd probably just not buy any more or at least VERY little comparatively.
When I first moved to Sarasota(2003) I was thrilled to see I had a real b/m to go to. Bennigntons has been around forever and when I first walked in, I was in heaven. I could buy tins of Penzance or any number of other of my favorites and life was good. Then Florida decided to fuck us pipe smokers with an 85% wholesale tax on pipe tobacco and a tin of Samuel Gawith Best Brown flake shot up to 22.95 a tin. I could buy the same tin online for 9 and change so I couldn't justify buying locally anymore. The poor guy cut his selection of pipe tobacco by 3/4's and now the only people who buy it are tourists from countries with even higher prices.
Viable or not, that may remain the only option. When I quit cancer sticks in the early '80's, a pack of cigs was 75¢. Today, the average cost of a pack is a little over $6, and people are still buying millions of packs. We adjust one way or another.
That's the truth. I'd bought and traded pipe tobacco and cigars on reddit and am sad to see them shutting that down. The wild west days of the internet can't last forever though. As Mark Twain said, “Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.” It's always the children we must think of when freedoms are being squashed.
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Also don't know what it is or how to use it. Sad to see that folks will miss it, though. Sounds like it was pretty cool.
