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I'm a bit surprised we haven't had a discussion about the recent FDA legislation yet, but I thought I'd kick it off.

How do you think the FDA legislation will affect you as a pipe maker? Do you think the more heavily regulated pipe tobacco market will affect pipe sales or prices? Do you think it will change the demographics of the pipe makers or pipe collectors?

Good topic! For those from outside the US of A, could you please give a summary of what's going on? I have a vague idea from several posts on FB but I haven't taken the time to read more in depth because most of the posts/articles are about cigars (not really my thing) and are written from an American perspective meaning that they require some knowledge of all the different agencies, current state of law etc. I'd love to hear it concisely cleared up...

P.S. Here in Poland we are just one legislative step away from a total ban on online purchases of all tobacco products, so there's ridiculous shit going on here as well...

The gist of the legislation is that any tobacco that was not in production before 2009 (I think...some arbitrary date) will need to be approved by the FDA before it can continue to be sold. There's a 2 year grace period where manufacturers will be able to submit their blends for approval. The other side of the regulation is that they will not be able to give out samples anymore (at shows, presumably).

sandahlpipe wrote:The gist of the legislation is that any tobacco that was not in production before 2009 (I think...some arbitrary date) will need to be approved by the FDA before it can continue to be sold. There's a 2 year grace period where manufacturers will be able to submit their blends for approval. The other side of the regulation is that they will not be able to give out samples anymore (at shows, presumably).

I believe it was 2007.

Also: handing out samples has been forbidden in Belgium for at least 5 years now...

If the people don't wake up soon, we will have no rights. It all favors the big guy. Much easier to control the head of the snake. All the small businesses will be sent to oblivion. I wish every time somebody says" it's to protect the kids"They would post if their kids are in private or public school. This is not the role Gov. should play in our lives! Humanism and liberals got us to this point. Look at what you have to choose from for this Presidential election! I hope a buying frenzy doesn't happen. all it will do is drive up the price. When I wrote to my Senator and congressman all I got was a Howdy E-mail!!! Ask Greg Pease how He feels.We all know him. I bet He's not happy!!!

Well... we are seeing now what the results are. Wingenroth's closing. Glynn Quelch out of business. A bunch of would-be pipe makers have quit and it's not clear where the chips are gonna fall with that.

The FDA doesn't legislate me because I live in another country (although that hasn't stopped American lawmakers in the past...lol). And I don't see them stopping something as silly as a briar pipe in the mail, so I'm not that worried, but you can see in the last six months that tobaccos have been stripped out of the market (John Cotton's) on the production end, they've been bought off the market in a cellaring frenzy (affecting pipe sales too), and tobaccos have been forced to market early to avoid being zapped altogether (Christmas Cheer 2017 anyone?).

Ugly stuff.