A Scary Thought: by Stan Wojculewski

Recently I was blessed with an amazing addition to my life. My wife and I had our first child: a baby girl named Lucy. Once the dust had cleared and Mom and Baby settled in at home, I chose to mark the occasion like so many of us do – by enjoying a fine cigar with good company. I chose a special stick that had been resting in the bottom of my humidor for over a year: a Gurkha Centurion. I sat down at the back patio table with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. A ten-year-old Late Bottled Vintage port was chosen to complement the choice of smokes. I clipped the beautiful 6 x 60 figurado with my Palio cutter and sat back, port in hand, and watched the sun creep down behind the landscape of post-WWII era suburban homes. 

Yet despite the good smokes, good spirits and good conversation, I couldn’t fight off the tiniest fingers of anxiety from invading my mood. It wasn’t anxiety concerning the baby. I had experienced the full wave of that particular sort at about 1:30 am the first night we were home all alone with her. No, this anxiety came from the fear that, if I were blessed to have another child someday, I might not be able to celebrate the occasion in this particular fashion. This form of celebration, which brings no harm or inconvenience to anyone else, enjoyed by the Euro-centric world for over half a millennia and the native people of America for even longer, might be criminalized.

Right now, the FDA is gearing up to consider new regulations of cigars. They used the mantra of “protect the children” to ban other forms of “flavored” tobacco. Even after the government assessed prohibitive taxes on so-called “little cigars,” purportedly to take them out of the hands of children, apparently that is not enough. We are now faced with more heavy handed, ham-fisted regulation. 

I am 3 months shy of my 32^nd birthday. My brother-in-law is 27 years old. My father-in-law is in his late fifties. We all own homes and hold down gainful employment. My father-in-law raised two daughters and worked hard to send them both to college so that they might be productive, self-sufficient members of society. We all pay (more than) our fair share of taxes and do not drain society by collecting any public assistance (including tax-funded healthcare). Yet despite all of this, the government apparently does not trust us enough to make an informed decision whether or not to enjoy a cigar on the premises of our own private property.

The idea that the government can reach into our backyards and rob three responsible adults of the right to enjoy this legal pastime is obscene to me. The call to action has already been laid down. If you have ever celebrated a wedding, graduation, birth, or simply a warm sunny Spring day with a cigar and you want to hold onto the right to do so in the future, then now is the time to speak up. Very soon the FDA will be taking public comment on their proposed regulations. Cigar Rights of America has all of the pertinent information up on their site and how to contact your government representatives. I urge you to write your representative, and when you do, tell him or her about a special event in your life that you celebrated with a cigar. Say how much it meant to you, and how you will hold that person accountable in November if your rights are further curtailed.

I have a cigar set aside for another special celebration: the day we as cigar smokers succeed in pushing back the next attempt at unreasonable interference in our right to enjoy our pastime. I hope to light that one soon! Please join me in making sure that happens.