Local shop warned for cigarette ads

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer

Article Last Updated; Saturday, November 07, 2009 12:01AM

A Durango smoke shop owner said Friday he is in the last stages of dismantling a Web site that offers flavored cigarettes and that he took the products off store shelves to comply with the Sept. 22 deadline in a federal Food and Drug Administration order.

U.S. regulators have warned 10 companies, including Durango Smoke Shop, for violating the ban on flavored cigarettes, letters released Friday showed, and Reuters reported.

Jim Callahan, owner of the Durango Smoke Shop since July 1, said he wasn't aware of the content of the shop Web site when he bought the business.

After receiving a letter from the FDA saying the agency found on Oct. 5 that he was advertising seven flavored cigarettes in violation of a federal regulation governing food, drugs and cosmetics, he told his Web master to bring the site into compliance.

Except for a section written in an archaic language the Web master is having difficulty with, most of the advertising is off the page, Callahan said.

"If the problem continues I'm going to scrap the site and start over," he said.

The FDA found on Oct. 5 that the Durango Smoke Shop was offering on its Web site Nat Sherman Touch of Clove, Nat Sherman Hint of Mint, Nat Sherman Mint, Djarum Black Clove, Djarum Light Clove, Djarum Super Clove and Djarum Special Clove cigarettes.

The products are represented as cigarettes that contain an artificial or natural flavor that is a characterizing flavor of the products and, as such, are adulterated and/or misbranded, the FDA letter said. A section of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act prohibits additives other than menthol as a characteristic flavor of a cigarette, the letter said.

"After the Sept. 22, 2009, effective date for this provision, flavored cigarettes marketed and sold in the United States in violation of this provision are adulterated," the FDA said.

The Web site of the Durango Smoke Shop advertises the seven cigarettes named contain mint or clove, the FDA said. If the cigarettes contain mint or clove, they are not legal. If they don't contain a flavoring they are misbranded and their labeling is false and misleading.

Continued noncompliance could result in FDA action without further notice, the letter said. FDA sanction could result in seizure of the products or an injunction.

In 2000, the former owner of the smoke shop stopped selling high-nicotine cigarettes over the Internet and over the counter after attorneys general from seven states warmed him to stop selling the high-powered cigarettes, called bidis, to minors.

The seven states sent similar warnings to four other smoke shops across the country for selling bidis to minors. Sellers of bidis were targeting children with cigarettes flavored with strawberry, menthol, clove, vanilla and mango.

Bidis are small, brown, hand-rolled cigarettes with a string securing one end that contain three times as much nicotine as regular cigarettes. They are produced mainly in India.

daler@durangoherald.com