Chicago Seeks to Ban Flavored Cigarette Paper


CHICAGO -- A new Chicago bill seeks to ban the sale and distribution of flavored cigar wrappers, which, lawmakers claim, are used to obscure the sight and smell of marijuana wrapped inside.

"I'm seeing more and more young people smoking cigars. Now I realize it's just a disguise," Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers, who co-sponsored the bill, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Rolling paper that looks like the outside of a cigar and tastes and smells like strawberry or cognac can't possibly have a legitimate purpose. When people want to smoke a cigar, they buy a cigar."

Over the years, Chicago has been proactive in banning controversial products such as grain alcohol and bidi cigarettes. Cigarette vending machines were banned from all public places except taverns. Stiff fines were imposed against vendors who sell cigarettes to minors and undercover stings were launched to catch them in the act, the report said.

The crackdown could lead to increased inspections and "sting" operations on convenience stores, the report said. According to the ordinance, "No person shall sell, give away, barter, exchange or otherwise furnish to any other person any cigarette wrapping paper or wrapping leaf that is, or is held out to be, impregnated or scented with, aged or dipped in alcoholic liquor and/or honey."
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