Anyone who smokes cigars knows that Tampa, specifically Ybor City, is world renown for their import and manufacture of cigars. Even today, you can go down to the Tampa shops and see authentic cigar makers hand rolling their products.

However, a new Florida Constitutional Amendment that bans smoking in any place where people work puts the entire cigar industry in jeopardy.

Importing and manufacturing of cigars naturally requires testing the product. This is now banned under the Florida Constitution, after November's passage of Amendment 6.

Cigar manufacturers are suing the state of Florida, Governor Bush, and several others over the Amendment, mainly because they had no other choice. While the Amendment was crafted to exclude tobacco retailers, cigar importers and manufacturers were left out of the exclusions. That leaves them with few legal options, other than the lawsuit. Personally, I wish them the best. The Amendment is a slap in the face to property rights and business owners everywhere.

On a related note, given that retailers are exempt, I wonder how easy an exemption would be to obtain. Restaurants and bars which are likely to be hurt the most, sometimes sell premium cigars. Does that classify them as a tobacco retailer? Could they gain an exemption, simply by selling a certain amount of tobacco each month? Hmm?