Eddie Farah Addresses the Movement to Ban Flavored Tobacco in Florida
“When one door closes, another one opens,” is a maxim that Big Tobacco seems to hold near and dear to its alleged heart.
Take flavored tobacco. When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the industry from selling flavored cigarettes (except for menthol, but that’s another story) on September 22, 2009, the industry simply took it in stride and concentrated on selling fruit- and candy-flavored cigars and chewing tobacco, which was still legal.
Never mind that the “cigars” started getting smaller and smaller until they resembled cigarettes wrapped in a tobacco leaf. And all the while, the tobacco industry kept insisting that flavored tobacco sales were not aimed at kids.
Apparently, Miami-Dade County Commissioners disagree with that assertion and in a preliminary vote on May 15, voted 12-1 in favor of an ordinance that would ban sales of flavored tobacco products in Miami-Dade. Although menthol, mint, and wintergreen flavored tobacco would still be exempt, the new ordinance would cover what the federal law does not.
There will be a hearing on July 10 at the Board of County Commissioner’s Public Safety and Healthcare Administration Committee Meeting before a final vote is held on the fate of the ordinance.
Although it is illegal to sell tobacco to minors, somehow they keep getting their hands on it and flavored tobacco is particularly popular among teens, according to the Miami HeraldFlorida cigarette lawsuit attorneys at Farah & Farah at (800) 533-3555.
By Eddie Farah
