What if the makers of Campbell’s soup could prohibit you from buying vegetables and tomato paste? Or if burger joints could outlaw the purchase of ground beef and hamburger buns?
Well, the cigar lobby might be on the verge of pulling off an analogous stunt, according to the Register-Guard of Eugene, Oregon:
The bill would make it illegal for anyone in Oregon to “sell or dispense” these items, also known as cigar or blunt wrappers.
Jacob Sullum at Reason explains one likely motivations for this regulatory push: roll-your-own cigars take away business from cigar-makers. Of course, the cigar-makers give a different explanation:
“We don’t want to be connected with drugs,” [lobbyist Paul] Cosgrove said. “We have a legitimate, lawful product.”
Got that? Cigar makers want to ban a perfectly legal product — loose cigar wrappers — because they could be used for illegal purposes. Funny enough, cigar makers recently made exactly the opposite argument. Again, Sullum from Reason has the goods. It turns out the CAA recently killed regulations on flavored cigars that some consumers apparently pack with pot, and:
