Sale of Single Cigars to Poor Blacks Banned

Katherine Mangu-Ward | November 19, 2008

The sale of loose, cheap cigars has been banned in Maryland's Prince George's county—you must now buy them in packs of five. Loose, cheap women are still available as singles.

The argument goes like this: Single blunts are (a) gateway drugs to cigarette smoking, especially the flavored ones, and (b) drug paraphernalia, since they can be hollowed out and used to smoke pot. 

It almost seems as if the rule was written as a satire on class and race relations in the U.S.:

Tobacco stores that specialize in cigar sales, and often sell high-end cigars for as much as $5 apiece or more, are excluded from the legislation's restrictions, as are other locations that are sometimes age-restricted, including golf courses, fraternal lodges, bars and restaurants.

In short, the only thing that has been banned are cheap cigars in places where poor black people buy them. Carry on with your commerce, white men, in your cigar stores, Elks Clubs, and golf courses. 

Bruce C. Bereano, a lobbyist for the distributors, said the intent of the law was "laudable." But, he said, the law will only create a cottage industry of people who buy cigars in packs of five and then sell them individually on the streets. 

The result: The poorest people will pay a little more for a bottom-of-the-line product and have to buy it on the street. Otherwise, everything will carry on as before.

Via Rawley Vaughan

Comments

|11.19.08 @ 1:15PM|#

"The new law will also make it easier to charge someone possessing a cigar with a drug paraphernalia offense."

It is now a crime to be caught smoking while black.

|11.19.08 @ 1:17PM|#

"Three Dead In Early Morning "Loosey" Raid"

|11.19.08 @ 1:19PM|#

The argument goes like this: Single blunts are ... (b) drug paraphernalia, since they can be hollowed out and used to smoke pot.

I remember a cop coming to my high school and telling us that with the new paraphernalia laws, he could arrest us for having stains on our fingers because then our fingers would be paraphernalia under the law.

|11.19.08 @ 1:22PM|#

That is fucking fantastic, Warren.

Our DARE dweeb managed to argue that most of the high from marijuana was oxygen deprivation from holding it in so long and that today's marijuana was so much more dangerous than 60s weed because of its potency. (This was in 1986.)

One way or the other, fuckface.

|11.19.08 @ 1:23PM|#

Could we perhaps be given some clue as to the political affiliation of the person or persons who instituted this abomination? Just askin', is all.

Loose, cheap women are still available as singles.

Do tell, Katherine.

The argument goes like this: Single blunts are (a) gateway drugs to cigarette smoking, especially the flavored ones,

I could have sworn that cigarettes were still legal.

and (b) drug paraphernalia, since they can be hollowed out and used to smoke pot.

So, we can expect to see a ban on single apples as well, since they, too, can be hollowed out and used to smoke pot? Howabout a ban on selling beer or soda in cans, since an empty can is easily converted into a pipe?

Err, so I'm told.

Ravac|11.19.08 @ 1:23PM|#

The possession of empty soda cans will be a crime pretty soon.

Ravac|11.19.08 @ 1:25PM|#

Dammit! Beaten again!

Screw you guys, I'm going home! *cries*

|11.19.08 @ 1:26PM|#

the law will only create a cottage industry of people who buy cigars in packs of five and then sell them individually on the streets.

And just when I thought government in all its forms was devoted to stamping out entrepreneurship!

|11.19.08 @ 1:37PM|#

Our DARE dweeb managed to argue

You can actually remember what those fucks said? I completely ignored them. Of course, I had been ignoring my mom's "pot is a gateway drug!!!" bullshit for years, so I had practice.

So, we can expect to see a ban on single apples as well, since they, too, can be hollowed out and used to smoke pot? Howabout a ban on selling beer or soda in cans, since an empty can is easily converted into a pipe?

"Uh, this one-hitter, officer, is, uh, for, uh, this loose American Spirit tobacco that I, uh, don't actually have on me right now."

|11.19.08 @ 1:39PM|#

Cool. Now you can't drink (well, at least not malt liquor if you're in downtown Seattle)
or smoke if you're poor and black. I'd also advise against owning a dog, just to be on the safe side.

|11.19.08 @ 1:42PM|#

PG county is majority minority and its government officials are almost all black. It would be nice if the "civil rights establishment" would spend a little less time calling people like Ward Conely uncle Toms and a little more time going after black politicians who victimize black citizens through bullshit laws like this.

|11.19.08 @ 1:47PM|#

You can actually remember what those fucks said?

Stupid things stick in my memory. For example, I have almost perfect recall of every comment you've ever made.

|11.19.08 @ 1:52PM|#

you must now buy them in packs of five.

We will make you stop smoking through taxes!

If you will not be persuaded by taxes, we shall make your smoking as inconvenient as possible!

If you will not be persuaded by inconvenience and taxes...Then we'll make you understand! Biggles! Fetch...THE CUSHIONS!

Naga Sadow|11.19.08 @ 1:59PM|#

Can they still buy Blunt singles? While I don't smoke pot anymore, I remember with nostaglia those fantastic cigars. They hollowed out sooooooooooooo easily.

|11.19.08 @ 2:02PM|#

Now you can't drink (well, at least not malt liquor if you're in downtown Seattle)
or smoke if you're poor and black

I blame Bill Gates.

Stupid things stick in my memory. For example, I have almost perfect recall of every comment you've ever made.

Remember this, biatch: NutraSweet is a furry. I know who the "squirrel" was this morning.

|11.19.08 @ 2:04PM|#

For example, I have almost perfect recall of every comment you've ever made.

So it was more than just a physical thing for you, then?

♩ "Feelings, nothing more than feelings..." ♩

Keith|11.19.08 @ 2:19PM|#

Perhaps this is just a way to encourage the smoking of higher quality cigars.

|11.19.08 @ 2:20PM|#

Dag,

He's just lashing out. When he's done sobbing over the vicious burn I gave him, it'll all work itself out.

|11.19.08 @ 2:21PM|#

SWIM has never, ever seen someone buy one (1) cheap cigar for any purpose other than hollowing it out to roll a blunt (sometimes called an "L"). In fact, when in a convienience store in an unfamiliar town, the guy in front of you buying a single honey dutch is probably SWIM's best shot at picking up a bag.

SWIM has used this technique to score MJ in many a locality.

|11.19.08 @ 2:24PM|#

that said, this is a transparent ploy to reduce blunt smoking, which, as said before, will undoubtedly have no effect whatsoever. legislation is cute in it's utter futility sometimes, no?

Citizen Nothing|11.19.08 @ 2:36PM|#

That's a great travel trip, phalkor. Thanks.

jtuf|11.19.08 @ 3:11PM|#

First the transfat bans. Now bans on cheap cigars. I have the feeling local politicians are just trying to make life unpleasant for low income people so they move out into someone else's tax base.

Rationalitate|11.19.08 @ 3:16PM|#

Buy it on the street? Yeah right. They're going to buy it from behind the counter, just like some stores in the ghetto sell single cigarettes.

Kreel Sarloo|11.19.08 @ 3:23PM|#

John,

Maybe, like Charlie Rangel, the people who run PGC think that no measure is too extreme to protect the brothers from Whitey's evil scheme to destroy them with drugs.

Lefiti|11.19.08 @ 3:54PM|#

Well, at least we're not enslaving poor balck folks with socialistic universal health care.

|11.19.08 @ 4:07PM|#

Last weekend a friend took me to an ultra-classy restaurant, where they offered $50 cigars for afters. In singles. My suspicion is that if you can afford a $50 cigar, then you can afford to hollow one out. The rich use gold plated pipes, Chivas bongs, and Cubano blunts.

HI, DADDIO!|11.19.08 @ 4:17PM|#

balck

bubba|11.19.08 @ 6:21PM|#

My lefty MD friends assure me that they are better able to make these decisions than poor black people.

It's for their own good.

I can't believe they say this crap with a straight face.

|11.19.08 @ 9:54PM|#

I had my DARE officer come in when I was in elementary school so I hadn't learned to not take what the government says seriously yet. And this was (probably still is) in Berkeley.

Although I am vehemently opposed to this and all other racially motivated nannies, I think it will be inefective not because people will by them on the streets as singles, but because they'll by them in packs of five.

Infact although it may cause an inconvenience it may save some people money. I feel bad for the people who don't regularly smoke blunts and are just in the mood for one and end up with 4 shitty cigars they dont want

|11.19.08 @ 10:19PM|#

This law is as stupid as they come and cannot be support no matter how laudable the goal is supposed to be. However, the article is as stupid as the law.

Any writer trying to paint any action by the County Council of Prince George County, Maryland as the act of mean old whitey oppressing poor blacks is as ignorant as the people that passed the law.

Prince George County is a minority majority county. (see 1st link) Not only that, but "Prince George's County is the nation wealthiest minority/majority county and is estimated to have an average household income of $68,488 in 2004 increasing to $76,561 in 2009." (see 2nd link)

White persons, percent, 2006- 27.9%
Black persons, percent, 2006- 66.0%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2006- 11,7%
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24033.html

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS:
http://www.pgcedc.com/files/pdfs/PGCstudy_1-10.pdf

PG County, even more so than the State of Maryland, is owned and operated by the Democratic Party. Ms. Ward you are off script! Get the storyline correct will ya'. It is the Republican's that are the rich racists.

PG County is a Democratic Party fiefdom. Even more than the dismal single party situation in the rest of the state of Maryland, there is no political competition in PG County. The county is run for the benefit of the Democratic Party insiders, Union officials and county employees.

|11.19.08 @ 10:33PM|#

Full disclosure:

My girlfriend is a 1st grade teacher in PG County. Because the school system is such a mess; that is one gets when a political party/county government/union are a single organization despite the titles they give themselves.

To her credit, she won't listen to me. Out of her class of 20+ this year, the only kids that come from intact families are immigrants. Of the rest, 50% are probably being raised by their grandmothers. No matter what, these poor kids have a high likely of getting completely lost in the system, but if they don't get a good start at reading in first grade their failure is nearly guaranteed.

Still, the administration of the school system and school system employees, including most of the teachers I have met, are incompetent unprofessional assholes.

|11.19.08 @ 10:36PM|#

That was supposed to read:

Because the school system is such a mess; that is one gets when a political party/county government/union are a single organization despite the titles they give themselves, I am trying to get her to move to one of the counties more north (Howard/Carroll/Fredrick).

|11.19.08 @ 10:40PM|#

My lefty MD friends assure me that they are better able to make these decisions than poor black people.

Bubba,

I think your friends are my neighbors in Columbia.

strat|11.20.08 @ 9:19AM|#

Wow. At least there's a new opportunity for entrepreneurial verve in PG County. Of course, states and ATF have a fit when people sell tobacco without paying all of the taxes, but I still think this will be a boon for anyone who has the capital to invest in some 5-pack inventory.

Heck, I'd go into the cigar business (The peach White Owls are particularly tasty in a synthetic sort of way, especially when chased with peach Snapple.), but I'd have to cross the river and drive into PG.

That would put me at risk of encountering the fake-police rapist cruisers, or potentially worse yet, the real PG police.

Rev. Jesse Jacksoff|11.20.08 @ 6:40PM|#

I can't be a classist, I'm black.

|11.26.08 @ 12:45PM|#

Obviously, this law is racist because it makes it more difficult to get drug paraphanalia in areas where poor people buy them. White people are never poor and never use drugs.

Seriously. I wouldn't worry for one second about the racist intentions of the legislators. This article's author, however...

anonymous|12.2.08 @ 4:21PM|#

They better ban apples, tinfoil, toiletpaper, and loose leaf as well. Wtf is wrong with these people.