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A friend of mine who is a brewer told me that every single beer put in the market must have FDA approval. The process takes only few weeks, and it is not too costly. The reason is that most beers are made from the same core ingredients - barley, hops, yeast, water, etc.  If a new beer is made of something different, then the approval process is more involved. With hundreds of new beers put in the market every months or weeks, the process is easy, quick, and straightforward.

I expect the approval of new cigars will be the same for cigars made of tobacco only without any additional ingredients. Tobacco is tobacco, and the chemical compounds in it will not change from crop to crop. Infused and flavored cigars will have more lengthy and costly process. I believe the FDA is more concerned about added carcinogenics like tar and sugar.

Everybody "hears numbers."  They're full of shit.  There's no way in hell there'd be THAT many microbreweries out there if FDA testing cost that much.

The difference between the FDA for beer and cigars is beer is regulated on the "F" food part of the FDA while cigars will fall on the "D" drug side.  A world of difference in my mind as to how much "A" applies - Administration or Assholeism.

I just have to wonder if the recency isn't targeted at cuban cigars.

This whole FDA madness infuriates me! The FDA doesn't even know exactly what they are asking and the 499 pages of "regulations" is a lot like reading the bible- it is all up for interpretation. Until they actually get the verbiage right, it may just be business as usual for the next 2 years.. hard to say.

This is bad.  As someone who has been involved in numerous administrative appeals in the D.C. Circuit (and some in the D.C. District Court, as this one is), I am highly skeptical that they'll be able to actually bring this thing down.  

While you and I may know that the science, social and otherwise, supporting this sort of regulation is paper thin and biased as hell, the Court will presume regularity, defer to the expertise of the agency on interpretation of the extent of its authority, the interpretation of the evidence, and what studies to recognize as valid, etc., and will swallow interpretations clearly aimed at aggressive policy ends and not premised on good interpretation or science.  

In the end, the cigar shops will go away, the culture will be destroyed and its remnants eviscerated from the public sphere, and we'll be stuck smoking on our back porches.  

Definitely time to explore the private club option for those that can swing it . . .  the feds can all kiss my ass.  :boty: