Amendment 6, which was approved by nearly 69 percent of Florida’s voters in November elections, officially becomes part of the Florida Constitution on January 7, 2003. Responsibility for implementing legislation to enforce compliance now rests with the state Legislature, which must meet a July 1, 2003 deadline.

In the meantime, state officials are advising affected businesses to start preparing to comply with the amendment as soon as possible.

The amendment bans smoking in most indoor workplaces, including restaurants. The only exceptions are for private residences not used to provide commercial child care, adult care or health care; retail tobacco shops; designated smoking guest rooms at hotels and other public lodging establishments; and stand-alone bars.

For the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America, which was scheduled to hold its 72nd annual convention and trade show at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando beginning on August 10, 2003, there was no choice but to find a new site outside of Florida in order to accommodate a smoking convention. Over the past 10 years, three RTDA conventions had been held in Florida, more than any other state. The most recent convention there was held in 1999 in Tampa, once the heart of cigar manufacturing in the U.S.

The RTDA was able to reschedule the 2003 RTDA trade show within a week of the original dates at another Gaylord Hotels property, Gaylord Opryland in Nashville (see below).

Ted Clark, executive director of the Tobacconist’s Association of America (TAA), said at press time his association had no plans to change its own annual convention, scheduled to be held in St. Petersburg, Fla. in April 2003. Should enforcement of the ban come earlier than the expected July deadline, Clark says he would have to move the meeting.

Opryland has benefited from an $80 million capital improvement program recently that has upgraded the facility, the largest combined hotel and convention center under one roof in the country.

The Dominican Republic Cigar of the Year was awarded to the Davidoff Millennium Blend Churchill, a medium strength cigar which features a hybrid Connecticut-Havana-seed Ecuador and Dominican filler and binder leaves.

The Honduran Cigar of the Year was awarded to the Maxima Reserve Robusto from Puros Indios. This light- to medium-strength cigar features a sun-grown Sumatra-seed wrapper and binder from Ecuador and a blend of Cuban seed filler tobaccos from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

The Nicaragua award was presented for the Padrón Anniversary 1964 Torpedo, a 100% Nicaraguan leaf torpedo.

The winning entry from Mexico was the TeAmo Anniversario Vintage 1999, a light- to medium-strength cigar rolled with a Havana 2000 Mexican wrapper, a Mexican binder, and a blend of Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Dominican filler leaf.

According to some experts, these states are unlikely to see to significant long-term increases in their state revenues. Meanwhile, the increases provide incentives for tax evasion and criminal activity and jeopardize existing age-verification controls that are effectively practiced by convenience store retailers.

Cigarette tax increases will once again be on the legislative agenda in 2003. “Just as people are addicted to cigarettes, states are becoming addicted to cigarette tax revenues,” said New York Association of Convenience Stores executive director Jim Calvin.

The Impact of Higher State Cigarette Taxes toolkit incorporates suggestions from retailers and associations who have actively opposed state cigarette tax increases, as well as from those who are seeing the onerous impact that these higher taxes are having on their businesses. Incorporating their suggestions, the toolkit provides messages that stress that loopholes need to be closed and inequities need to be addressed; that tax increases provide incentives for tax evasion and criminal activity; that c-store retailers have responsible practices for tobacco sales, including age verification; and that additional federal regulation is not necessary and would take the focus away from what works.

“Even if you don’t face higher taxes now, it’s likely that your state will consider them in the future,” said Jeff Leonard, a NACS spokesperson. “Rest assured, they will also use their success with cigarette taxes as a model for additional taxes on other “sin” products sold in stores. However, by working to get lawmakers and the media, in particular, to understand the implications - and the impact on their community convenience stores - of higher cigarette taxes, the better we can work with them to find solutions to these budget shortfalls.”

The federal district court’s decision dismissed, among others, the claim that the Court had personal jurisdiction over Altadis, S.A. and rejected General Cigar’s contentions that the Altadis companies had violated federal antitrust and trademark laws in the United States. Premium cigar manufacturer General Cigar had alleged that Altadis U.S.A. was forcing cigar wholesalers and retailers to buy its brands as a condition for future supplies of Cuban cigars once the Cuban embargo was lifted.