Cigar Question for Canadians... and everyone else of course

nightmaremike31

So, the IPCPR sent me an email saying that they needed my support. WOO HOO!! They also said that...

IPCPR:

The word "tobacco" could be deemed illegal and not allowed in retail tobacco shops' names!
Customers may not be allowed in humidors or to physically handle tobacco products!
Shop windows may have to be blacked-out!
Premium cigars may be required to be selected and sold from catalogs with only black and white photos!
Premium tobacco products may have graphic images of diseases on them!

These are ALL things that HAVE happened in parts of Europe and even closer to home-- in Canada.

Are your Canadian Tobacco store windows "blacked-out" like my Gangsta Jetta's?

And do you guys really experience such a high level of Censorship towards tobacco sales?

Has anyone else seen such measures taken to "hide" the sales of tobacco? I mean, I live in UTAH, and they don't even go to this level of extremes HERE about tobacco.

Aaaaaannd.... (checks watch) BEGIN

(my apologies for any grammatical errors)

camgfs

I wish that message was wrong! In fact, it is wrong. The part where it says "Premium tobacco products 'may have graphic images' of deseases on them!". That is wrong, because THEY DO HAVE GRAPHIC IMAGES OF DESEASES ON THEM!!!. It's pretty grosse actually.

Yes, things are blacked out. Yes, you are not allowed in the humidor or allowed to handle tobacco products until you purchase them. You can't even give a cigar a sniff! The fines are big. Stores have had to cover up their cigarettes and you need to ask for them by name. If your brand is not available, you can NOT ask them to show you what they have, or even have them suggest another brand. Some Cities are starting to ban outdoor smoking in public places. You wont be able to smoke on a park bench, at the beach or any public gathering place outddors. There is already a ban on smoking in the workplace, on malls, restaurants and suce. A personal friend opened a "cigar bar" a few years back and was shut down only months after opening when the smoking band went into effect. He could not allow smoking in a shop that was designed as a smoking bar.

Oh, and the prices are an average of 5 TIMES HIGHER THAN THE U.S. due to huge tobacco taxes and duties.

Sucks to be a Canadian if you smoke!

EDIT: Some Provinces in Canada have different levels of this rule, but it is getting worse everywhere.

jeff_connors

It is truly awful,...

clearlysuspect

Crap like this makes me want to be a hermit! The world's getting a little too weird for me these days.

clearlysuspect

And isn't weed legal in Canada????

PuroFreak

First of all those laws couldn't be been put in place in Canada because the word "eh" never appeared once. Clearly this is bogus. LOL

bforrester

Its no BS. Spent a couple months outside of Vancouver a while back. You almost have to be part of an underground society to know where to go in the first place. Cant testify on price, coworker went and bought for us all as a gift. Do know that pack a of cigarettes was around nine bucks though and the graphic warnings are larger than the branding on the packs. And their warnings are no joke, they don't suggest, they say this will kill you. Had to go to the bar to buy booze too, not just a "package store" like some of the states, but the actual frickin bar.

jsnake

Get ready America. With our current government this is coming here soon. It is starting all over the country with the smoking bans and tobacco sales bans. POLITICS ASIDE, we all love cigars here and you can't deny that our rights are slowly being infringed upon. I don't care if you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Libertarian. Doesn't matter what party is controlling Washington now. This is how it starts. We are losing our freedoms slowly but surely.

stephen_hannibal

jsnake:

Get ready America. With our current government this is coming here soon. It is starting all over the country with the smoking bans and tobacco sales bans. POLITICS ASIDE, we all love cigars here and you can't deny that our rights are slowly being infringed upon. I don't care if you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Libertarian. Doesn't matter what party is controlling Washington now. This is how it starts. We are losing our freedoms slowly but surely.

And the best part is they're going to use your money to do it....

mustluvcigars

stephen_hannibal:

jsnake:

Get ready America. With our current government this is coming here soon. It is starting all over the country with the smoking bans and tobacco sales bans. POLITICS ASIDE, we all love cigars here and you can't deny that our rights are slowly being infringed upon. I don't care if you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Libertarian. Doesn't matter what party is controlling Washington now. This is how it starts. We are losing our freedoms slowly but surely.

And the best part is they're going to use your money to do it....

Ill grow my own!!!!

jeff_connors

I did!!! Its not so hard...got tons of seed, I can hook you up

PuroFreak

jeff_connors:

I did!!! Its not so hard...got tons of seed, I can hook you up

This is actually something I'm going to try next year. My parents have a place in East TX on the lake the is hot and humid and should be pretty good. They keep a garden there anyway so if I can just snag a little land to grow some plants. I'm thinking if I can get 3-4 different types I can try to blend something worth a damn... Doubt it will work out very well my first time out since I know jack squat about rolling cigars or about blending, but I'll give it a shot.

nightmaremike31

camgfs:

I wish that message was wrong! In fact, it is wrong. The part where it says "Premium tobacco products 'may have graphic images' of deseases on them!". That is wrong, because THEY DO HAVE GRAPHIC IMAGES OF DESEASES ON THEM!!!. It's pretty grosse actually.

Yes, things are blacked out. Yes, you are not allowed in the humidor or allowed to handle tobacco products until you purchase them. You can't even give a cigar a sniff! The fines are big. Stores have had to cover up their cigarettes and you need to ask for them by name. If your brand is not available, you can NOT ask them to show you what they have, or even have them suggest another brand. Some Cities are starting to ban outdoor smoking in public places. You wont be able to smoke on a park bench, at the beach or any public gathering place outddors. There is already a ban on smoking in the workplace, on malls, restaurants and suce. A personal friend opened a "cigar bar" a few years back and was shut down only months after opening when the smoking band went into effect. He could not allow smoking in a shop that was designed as a smoking bar.

Oh, and the prices are an average of 5 TIMES HIGHER THAN THE U.S. due to huge tobacco taxes and duties.

Sucks to be a Canadian if you smoke!

EDIT: Some Provinces in Canada have different levels of this rule, but it is getting worse everywhere.

Damn... I thought maybe it was a scare tactic... but that's intense. Damn...

So I'm totally going to submit a letter to the US FDA about how I feel. My email said that the FDA is considering placing cigars and pipe tobacco in to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act regulations. I would say you too can PM me for more information on how we can prevent this (so not to offend the great and wonderful C.Com)... But it appears that my "Inbox" button that was once in my upper right hand corner above the "search" button... has been cut off... so has the "earch" of the "search" button... Anybody know how to get it back?

BStayer

PM sent

Same thing happens on my screen. Just go back to the main forums page and your "Inbox" button should be there. That's what I have to do anyways and it works.

laker1963

Try changing your view settings on your browser Mike. You should find it under the View menu along the top of the page om the left side. (if your browser window looks like mine).

nightmaremike31

This is what I see, as of a few minutes ago... I can just barely click on the search button at the top right, but no inbox button...

sol1821

in the uk we have horrible pictures of diseases associated with smoking plastered over any and every tobacco product. a lot of them are pictures of an open body and a cut through someones black lungs its a pain in the *** as it ruins a really nice box as i dont wish to keep a box with a picture like this on and they cant be pealed off without the box being damaged. they dont even show specific to cigar smoking just normal smoking(cigarettes)

camgfs

Nightmare,

It looks like your web browser is not centering the web page. Therre should be equal blank space on each side of this page. I do see that your image shows a vertical scrollbar, at the bottom. Click on it and drag it to the right and that should reposition the page, until you change pages, of course.

jsnake

nightmaremike31:

This is what I see, as of a few minutes ago... I can just barely click on the search button at the top right, but no inbox button...

I only get that when I am using my Blackberry. I do not know how to fix it. Wish I did.

laker1963

jsnake:

nightmaremike31:

This is what I see, as of a few minutes ago... I can just barely click on the search button at the top right, but no inbox button...

I only get that when I am using my Blackberry. I do not know how to fix it. Wish I did.

I bet if he checks his zoom settings it is like 125 or 150%.

nightmaremike31

Ha, you clever cat!! I changed my zoom and I was able to see the "inbox" button but not click on it, so then I had to go in to my encoding below my zoom option, and change it from "left-to-right encoding" to "right-to-left encoding" so I can click the "inbox" button, but then I have to switch it back so I can click on anything on the web page. I don't think my work computer likes the new "Holiday themed Cigar.Com" banner. It's never been a problem before...

Thank you to all of the great BOTL on here for all your help with my lame tech problems. You guys are always awesome.


And BStayer... you have a PM... I think... it the first PM I've ever sent...

havanaal

I walked into a humidor in Toronto, and the clerk followed me in, and wouldn't let me touch anything. I felt insulted and immediately left the store. Little did I know it was the law. So it was the Canadian government who actually treated me like a criminal, not the cigar store owners. The incident left a sour taste in my mouth for anything Canadian. But I guess they're no more responsible for their moronic government than we are for ours!

kaspera79

havanaal:

I walked into a humidor in Toronto, and the clerk followed me in, and wouldn't let me touch anything. I felt insulted and immediately left the store. Little did I know it was the law. So it was the Canadian government who actually treated me like a criminal, not the cigar store owners. The incident left a sour taste in my mouth for anything Canadian. But I guess they're no more responsible for their moronic government than we are for ours!

well that stinks... You can't touch a cigar until you pay for it. Sounds like a bad marriage.