You can get them at just about any convenience store in the city.Single little cigars or flavored tobacco wraps for rolling your own.
They’re convenient, their easy to use….and in the case of the wraps taste sweet, almost like candy.
And that’s the problem.
‘The flavored wrappers appeal to young people and that’s what we need to stop.’ Councilwoman Belinda Conaway says.
There are two separate measures here.
The first would require little cigars to be sold in packs of five or more and would forbid single cigar sales.
The second measure would ban flavored cigar wraps in the city completely.
A health department survey of almost 15 hundred teenagers.
About a quarter of them had smoked a just one brand of little cigars Black and Mild within a 30 day period.The other thing is marijuana.
The city says the small cigars and the wrapping papers especially encourage drug use….making it more appealing with a candy taste.
Backers of both measures say they want to make it harder to get.
‘The double Dutch’s the cherry blunts it’s not prohibiting them but mandating them in packages of five limit teens to have access and a cheap and easy price to them.’ Councilman Robert Curran says.
But opponents of the measure say that the wrapper ban and cigar pack proposal unfairly affects adults who can legal use either product.
It is already to illegal to sell any tobacco product to minors and drugs have always been illegal….so why not enforce the laws already on the books.
‘They are very injurious retail businesses they are highly discriminatory to adults in the city of Baltimore both economically and the fact they are adults they being ignored and being hassled.’ Tobacco Distributor’s Spokesman Bruce Bereano.
The committee voted to approve both measures.
They’ll get second reading before the full council next week.

A fire started by discarded cigarettes claimed a Winfield couple’s mobile home Monday evening, according to Winfield Fire Marshal and Deputy Chief Alan Stoll.The 1959 single-wide mobile home, located at 410 W. 15th, was occupied by Ivan and Linda Findley.
The fire was reported to emergency dispatchers at 9:10 p.m. Monday shortly after Linda was awakened by a restless dog in the home. She smelled smoke and told her husband.
“Ivan went and checked on it and discovered a small fire in the kitchen area,” Stoll said. “He told his wife, they got their pets and evacuated the home.”
The home did not have a working smoke detector, Stoll said.
Firefighters arrived at 9:14 p.m. to find a fire in the front area of the trailer near the kitchen. They were able to quickly snuff the flames and contained the fire to that area, Stoll said.
“The crews did a good job of knocking it down. They should be able to salvage some property.”
Investigators believe the fire was started by cigarettes that had been disposed of in the home’s kitchen.
There were no injuries to the occupants or firefighters, and the couple was able to safely evacuate their pets.
According to Stoll, the mobile home was a total loss. He estimated the value of the home and property destroyed in the $12,000 range.
The couple had no insurance and will receive assistance from the American Red Cross.
According to Stoll, the fact that the residents were alerted to the fire by a family pet and not a smoke detector should be a reminder to area residents of the importance of fire safety and preparedness. He also encouraged anyone who doesn’t have a smoke detector to get one.
“We have smoke detectors,” Stoll said. “If somebody can’t afford smoke detectors, contact the fire department, and we will assist them in getting that needed safety for their home.”
The Winfield Fire Department was assisted at the scene by the Arkansas City Fire Department, Winfield AreaEmergency Medical Service and Winfield Police Department.
Houston fire update
A house fire that destroyed a home at 321 N. Houston on Aug. 5 has been ruled accidental in nature, according to Stoll.
The exact cause of the fire is still undetermined, but it has been ruled out that a lack of maintenance on the home caused the fire.“That played no part in the fire,” Stoll said.Stoll also pointed out that the fire was not caused by a gas or electrical malfunction.The fire left the Lydia and Robert Buck family without a place to live and also claimed the lives of the family’s two dogs.

Here are previews of some editorials we’re working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.
–The expected approval Wednesday of the first slot machine gambling license in Maryland is more than just an important milestone in the long-running, politically charged debate about gambling in the state. The grant of a licence for a slots parlor at Ocean Downs is also the first promising sign we’ve seen in more than a year for the state’s coffers. A temporary facility with as many as 500 machines could be running in time for next summer’s tourist season in Ocean City, and while that may not make much of a dent in a $2 billion budget shortfall, it certainly helps.
The Ocean City facility has also been blissfully free of the ethical, legal and political problems that have stymied the development of the likely more lucrative sites planned for Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City. The Ocean Downs site is being developed by a Marylander – Bill Rickman of Montgomery County – who has experience in operating a successful racetrack-casino in Delaware, and it has gotten the approval of local elected officials.
It’s probably naïve to hope that the sight of slots rising in Worcester County will inspire the Arundel County Council to finally make a decision, or for Baltimore officials to make sure we have no more surprises like land swaps or no-bid demolition contracts on the way to a slots site there. But when Maryland voters overwhelmingly supported legalizing slot machines in the 2008 election, they expected more than a few hundred machines on the far eastern edge of the state. They expected a successful, responsibly run program that would help fund state government without more tax increases. Baltimore and Arundel officials need to follow Worcester County’s lead to get us there as soon as possible.
–The Food and Drug Administration’s first act as a regulator of tobacco was a good one: banning sweet, fruit- and candy-flavored cigarettes. Because they mask the harsh taste of tobacco, these products have been particularly attractive to underage smokers, serving as a gateway into a lethal habit. It’s curious that the agency exempted menthol cigarettes from the ban – a decision based, no doubt, on the fact that menthols are vastly more popular with smokers of all ages than the strawberry, chocolate or vanilla varieties that are subject to the order. FDA officials said they’re reviewing menthols, and they shouldn’t hesitate to put them on the banned list as well if they can be determined to have the effect of making smoking more attractive to children.
Federal, state and local officials should be looking at other ways to make sure these starter-sins stay out of the hands of children. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler’s push to restrict the sales of “alcopops,” sugary alcoholic beverages that are now as widely available as beer, met an inexcusable veto from Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2008. Although the governor has subsequently come around on the issue, the legislature has still been unable to enact restrictions. And Baltimore and state officials have long struggled to restrict the single sales of so-called “little cigars,” products that are taxed and sold as if they were premium cigars instead of what they really are, glorified cigarettes. Mayor Sheila Dixon was able to enact regulations requiring they be sold in packs of five or more, but the change that would really matter – taxing them like cigarettes – has gotten nowhere in Annapolis.
Opponents of such restrictions are right that adults should be able to make decisions that are bad for them, but that argument fails when it comes to products that, intentionally or not, are calibrated to appeal to kids.