States call for reclassifying little cigars

WASHINGTON – If it looks like a cigarette, feels like a cigarette and smokes like a cigarette – it must be a cigarette. At least that’s what 39 states and Guam are saying about “little cigars.”

Many little cigars should be reclassified as cigarettes, the officials said Thursday, meaning they would have to carry health-warning labels and be subject to higher taxes and marketing restrictions that are imposed on cigarettes, but not on cigars.

“Call a cigarette a cigarette. I’ve got them in front of me. There isn’t any question these are cigarettes,” said Montana Attorney General Mike Mcgrath.

Calvin Phelps, president of Alternative Brands Inc., which produces little cigars for several companies, said little cigars are made with tobacco that is different from the tobacco in cigarettes. He also said the wrappers used for little cigars are made from tobacco, which is different from the paper used to roll cigarettes. “Little cigars have been around about as long as cigarettes have,” Phelps said.

The attorneys general announced Thursday they had petitioned the federal government to issue new rules clarifying how cigars and cigarettes should be categorized.

“The new rules are intended to level the playing field so that cigarette-like products are taxed as cigarettes,” the attorneys general wrote in their petition to the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.