US Laws - Cuban Cigars
Being that I work in a cigar shop in one of Canada's biggest cities, I am often asked by American's how many cubans they are allowed to bring back the States with them. The answer, of course, is NONE.
Quite honestly, most people do not know this. What's worse is that there is an even more ridiculous law that the US government passed recently that prohibits American citizens from purchasing and consuming cuban cigars OUTSIDE of the USA. I do not know much about the law because I am not a lawyer and I do not pretend to be. But as i understand it there are some severe penalties for this 'crime' of up to 2 years in jail, or fines up to $250,000. I'll take the jail, personally!
Anyway just something I thought people might be interested in. I will update this post with some new links and more official information on the law.
Here are some links
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1054968,00.html?cnn=yes
Adam
Quite honestly, most people do not know this. What's worse is that there is an even more ridiculous law that the US government passed recently that prohibits American citizens from purchasing and consuming cuban cigars OUTSIDE of the USA. I do not know much about the law because I am not a lawyer and I do not pretend to be. But as i understand it there are some severe penalties for this 'crime' of up to 2 years in jail, or fines up to $250,000. I'll take the jail, personally!
Anyway just something I thought people might be interested in. I will update this post with some new links and more official information on the law.
Here are some links
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1054968,00.html?cnn=yes
Adam
posted by Adam Henderson @ 4:31 PM
4 Comments:
At 4:05 AM,
Hadley V. Baxendale said…
What's worse, the new US law or the prices of Cuban cigars in Canada?
At 7:16 PM,
Adam Henderson said…
Well I suppose paying $30 for a Montecristo is better than paying $250,000 for it. However they are still steep. It's taxes, damn taxes.
At 7:45 AM,
jkira said…
I've been comparing some of my favorite Cuban cigars with their non-Cuban counterparts and even though I live in Canada, I end up getting many of my cigars from vendors in the US. For example I could pay upwards of $20 Cdn. (approx. $17 USD) for a Montecristo #3 or I could pay $4 USD for it in the US. There is very little difference between the quality of the two. I doubt very many people would tell the difference in a blind smoke-test.
At 9:48 AM,
Adam Henderson said…
Well, my rule is that if you enjoy it is good enough! I personally do not agree with you here, but many people do enjoy non-cubans over cubans. But I must admit that since I have not smoked the 'Montecristo' brand that is available in the US I cannot really judge those cigars. But keep in mind that the Non-Cuban Montecristo is not related to the Cuban brand, they merely stole the name because it is was not in use in the USA after the embargo. Imagine if you could start selling something called "Coca-Cola" in some other country and use all their branding, that's kind of what's going on.
My opinion is that if you are buying cubans in the US you might be geting fakes (if infact you are saying that you buy them there). Even the people selling them to you may not know it, because in the US there is no legitimate supplier of cubans, and even in Canada there is only one. So beware.
And if you ever get the chance try smoking one cigar directly after the other, and I guarantee you will notice a difference (not saying which you will like more) And if you don't notice any difference you either haven't smoked enough to recognize some taste differences or you have smoke so much that you have no working taste buds!
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