TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa’s J.C. Newman Cigar Co., the oldest family-owned premium cigar maker in America, is celebrating a big win.
“A huge sigh of relief for us and everyone in Ybor City and Florida’s historic premium cigar industry,” said Drew Newman, fourth-generation owner of J.C. Newman Cigar Co.
A federal judge struck down the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of handcrafted premium cigars on Wednesday.
In 2016, the FDA was extended to regulate all products meeting the definition of a tobacco product, including cigars. It was an effort to limit youth access and tobacco addiction.
“Premium Cigars, unlike other products, are not used by children. So, because of that, Judge Mehta said that the FDA got it wrong by applying these strict cigarette regulations to premium cigars,” Newman said.
According to Newman, the cost to comply with FDA's requirements threatened to destroy the premium cigar industry. v
“Our one and only goal as a company is to roll cigars the same way 100 years from now that we do today and that we did a century ago. What really caused us to lose sleep over FDA’s proposed regulations is that they would’ve forced us to transform our business. To lose the art, the handcraft, the tradition of rolling a premium cigar by hand,” Newman said.
The federal court, however, only provided relief for premium cigars that are entirely handmade; it did not include cigars rolled by machines.
