The 5 cent cigar has gone the way of the dodo bird, of course, but nothing could have prepared cigar lovers for the fact that Congress is now planning to raise cigar taxes to as high as $10 per cigar. Even if they have to pay a duty in bringing these cigars back, they will gladly do so since that duty will be far less than the $10 per cigar tax that they would otherwise have to pay. Not only will poor people not purchase cigars, but rich people will -- whenever they can -- opt to purchase...

The tobacco industry is offering up spit tobacco as a "safe alternative" to smoking. Promoting chew The tobacco industry knows smokers are concerned about the adverse health effects of smoking, and the public is increasingly intolerant of secondhand smoke. First, the tobacco industry is in the business of selling addiction. But thanks to the state Legislature, which appropriated $9 million to fund statewide tobacco prevention, Montanans have a fighting chance against the addiction that...

The idea is not to impart flavor to the cigar, but to keep the tobacco in a nearly sealed environment, concentrating the heat and the aging process. All of the tobacco used to make the cigar spends time in old oak barrels that once held Dominican rum. When they were opened, it smelled like heaven, said Blanco, and the tobacco "got real dark. Few cigars are made from tobacco aged in barrels, so the cigar men at Aurora S. think they have something special with their Aurora Corojo Oscuro...

If you favor other types of tobacco, though, you might be in for sticker shock. Americans last year, according to the Department of Agriculture smoked 5.3 billion large cigars, up roughly 3% from the pervious year. Here's how it would work: the average tax on common cigars would rise 16 cents. Right now, Senate and Congressional leaders are floating a 61 cent per pack cigarette tax hike. Lawmakers have their eyes on cigars. There are roughly 2,500 other specialty tobacco stores across the...

Te cigar industry accounts for less than one percent of the entire tobacco business. Although cigarettes would also be affected by the tax (at the cost of $1 per pack, up from the current 36 cents), it s the cigar manufactures and connoisseurs that would suffer most. But that same cigar, if a controversial bill is passed, could cost almost five times as much as it does now. According to a flyer displayed at Emerson s downtown store, the law would "be sure to eliminate over 500,000 jobs";...

But it's Miami, with its large Cuban expatriate population, that controls about 90 percent of the $300-million premium cigar industry most threatened by the tax. Florida's first-term Republican senator has been nudged front and center in a debate that hit the national stage last week: The proposed federal cigar tax that could raise the price of a premium smoke by as much as $10. The Democratic-controlled Congress wants an extra $35-billion to reauthorize the state children's health...