As third- and fourth-generation owners of America’s oldest, family-owned premium cigar company, Eric, Bobby, and Drew Newman released the following statement today:
“We are are very pleased that the FDA is reconsidering the regulation of premium cigars. In the past few years, new research has confirmed what we always knew: that hand-crafted, premium cigars are fundamentally different from every other tobacco product. This new research — many of which was conducted and funded by FDA itself — has founded that minors do not smoke premium cigars, premium cigar consumers smoke infrequently, and that there are no statistically significant adverse health effects from premium cigar smoking.
“We are very eager to share this new and informative research with FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Center for Tobacco Products Director Mitch Zeller and are very grateful that they are willing to consider it.
“Because of its costly and overbearing requirements, FDA regulation threatens to cripple the American premium cigar industry and the small, old, family-owned businesses like ours who comprise it. Over the next 90 days it will be imperative for every premium cigar consumer to submit comments in this rulemaking urging FDA to exempt premium cigars from the onerous and exorbitant requirements of FDA regulation.
“We are extremely appreciative of the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association and the Cigar Rights of America for all of their efforts to championing the rights of consumers to enjoy premium cigars and advocating on behalf of the premium cigar industry.
“We remain optimistic that the premium cigar industry will ultimately obtain relief — through legislation, litigation, or regulation — from the crippling components of FDA regulation. Our family has been proudly rolling premium cigars in America since 1895, and we will continue to work tirelessly so that our family company and our historic factory in Tampa, Florida can stay in business for another four generations and 123 years.”
About J.C. Newman Cigar Co.
Founded in 1895 by Julius Caeser Newman, J.C. Newman Cigar Company is the oldest family-owned premium cigar maker in America. J.C. Newman rolls its El Reloj, Factory Throwouts, and Trader Jacks cigars by hand-operated, vintage cigar machines at its historic cigar factory in Tampa, Florida. It also hand rolls its Brick House, Perla del Mar, El Baton, and Quorum cigars at the J.C. Newman PENSA cigar factory in Estelí, Nicaragua. J.C. Newman’s Diamond Crown, MAXIMUS, Julius Caeser, and Black Diamond cigars are handmade by Tabacalera A. Fuente in the Dominican Republic. With its longtime partners the Fuente family, the Newmans founded the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which supports low-income families in the Dominican Republic with education, health care, vocational training, and clean water. To learn more about J.C. Newman Cigar Company, visit www.jcnewman.com.
