In this video we sit down Frank Herrera, a lawyer and long time friend of Stogie Review to discuss what the impact of the FDA’s May 5th deeming regulation announcement on the cigar industry, particularly the boutique portion of it, from manufacturer on down to the consumer. (Spoiler, it’s going to affect everyone.) Along the way we go over whether or not either the the August 8th 2016 effective date and/or the February 15th 2007 predicate date could change, the differences in how long the predicate date “look back” is for cigars vs. cigarettes, how and why the cigarette industry threw everyone else under the bus, what manufacturers (especially small ones) need to know, what the deeming regulations actually say and a lot more.
Speaking of small manufacturers, if you happen to be one and are in need of some legal advice and/or assistance with handling the FDA regulations, Frank is happy to help. You can contact him at CigarLaw.com (@CigarLaw on Twitter), hnewmedia.com (@hnewmedia on Twitter) or on Facebook.
And it should go without saying that this post and the video you are about to watch is not legal advice. Brian is not a lawyer, nor is he a paid or unpaid spokesman for a lawyer. He doesn’t even remember any good lawyer jokes. If you need legal advice, contact Frank directly.
[UPDATE 8/1/16: If you had trouble listening to the video before, try it again, we’ve tweaked the audio to greatly reduce the background noise and make the conversation easier to understand.]
See Also
Next FDA Update
FDA Update 8/30/16
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Drew Estate
Audio is so bad as to make this video unlistenable.
Yeah, I’m pretty disappointed with how the audio turned out too and I’m working on cleaning it up. I hope to have a better version uploaded soon.
Thanks, Brian. This is an important topic to the industry and consumers and I for one have no idea what to expect other than far fewer new cigars coming on the market and inevitable price increases. Thanks for covering this.
I wish this would play for me…
Don’t sweat it. I’m in the process of uploading new version with better audio. When it’s done if you’re still having problems I’ll send you a direct link to the video on youtube.
George, the video has been updated. Try it again.
Mike M, if you’re still having problems, here’s a direct link to the video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCbxjaPVIOA
Thanks Brian, Frank, and Ben. Yes, this is important to us all. Good questions and great articulate answers from Frank. It’s a boon to have someone with his knowledge and experience in our corner in the face of this travesty. Too many IT guys in the biz… just kidding!!
Thanks for cleaning up the audio, too.