Fall 2020 PCA Magazine

PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG AUTUMN 2020 | PCA The Magazine 43 R E V I E W PCA Legal and Advocacy Work SINCE THE PASSAGE OF THE TOBACCO CONTROL ACT , the PCA has invested more than $25 million to fight for and defend the premium cigar and pipe tobacco industry. In 2020, that investment, years of legal fights and persistent lobbying have finally paid off. ON FEB. 3, 2020, District Court Judge Amit Mehta threw out the warning requirements for premium cigars, contending that the FDA did not properly analyze the different usage patterns between premium cigars and other tobacco products. The Court pointed to evidence that “premium cigars have different usage patterns than other cigar and tobacco products, they are almost never used by youth, and they are instead used by older, higher income, and better educated consumers.” ON JULY 7, 2020, a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that “The Tobacco Control Act permits the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products for the public health, but only after considering whether the regulation would likely increase or decrease the number of smokers. Under this authority, the FDA-promulgated regulations requiring extensive health warnings on packaging and in advertising for cigars and pipe tobacco. The FDA concluded that these warnings would help communicate the health risks of smoking, but it failed to consider how the warnings would likely affect the number of smokers. We hold that this failure violated the Tobacco Control Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.”  T here, I think that about does it for the words and phrases that we have all heard and uttered so many times now they are white noise and/or cliches at this point. Now that we’ve gotten those out of the way, let’s take a look back at the year that was and how your association has worked for you. CONTINUED