"Little cigars" are cigarettes and should and could be regulated as cigarettes.

What is it about?

In the United States, cigars are regulated and taxed more weakly than cigarettes. So-called filtered “little cigars” look like conventional cigarettes, are smoked like conventional cigarettes, and fit within FDA and other cigarette definitions. So far, however, they have escaped being regulated and taxed as cigarettes. Finally, in the waning days of the Obama Administration, FDA announced they would regulate these fake-cigar cigarettes correctly, as cigarettes, sending warning letters to four manufacturers marketing fake-cigar cigarettes with flavors cigarettes are not allowed to have. But nothing further was announced. Then a Freedom of Information Act request obtained documents from FDA showing that it had abandoned its effort to regulate fake-cigar cigarettes as cigarettes after receiving responses from the manufacturers saying their “little cigars” were not cigarettes. This article shows that the manufacturer’s arguments fail, and that available research, other evidence, and legal analysis show that filtered “little cigars” meet the legal definition of cigarettes under the TCA and other similar federal, state, and local definitions. To protect the public health, FDA must renew its efforts to ensure that these filtered “little cigars” do not continue to evade compliance with the many important restrictions and requirements that apply to cigarettes but not cigars. To prevent and reduce smoking more quickly, other government regulatory and tax-collection agencies with similar cigarette definitions should also begin correctly regulating and taxing these fake-cigar cigarettes as cigarettes.

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Why is it important?

Manufacturers inaccurately label cigars as "little cigars" or "filtered cigars" to escape the more strict regulation and taxes applied to cigarettes than to cigars at the federal, state, and local levels. Regulating and taxing all cigarettes as cigarettes, no matter how they industry decides to label them, will reduce smoking and reduce smoking harms. This article shows how FDA, federal excise tax authorities, and many states and localities could start regulating and taxing all cigarettes as cigarettes, no matter how the industry mislabels them, based on existing cigarette and cigar definitions in their laws.