A judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the FDA’s regulation of premium cigars should be put on hold, reports Cigar Journal.

Judge Amit P. Mehta said that the FDA had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it started the process of regulating premium cigars back in 2016. Judge Mehta said the FDA had not considered scientific evidence submitted by Cigar Rights of America with regard to the moderate use and limited health effects of premium cigars, reports Cigar Journal. The ruling means that the regulation of premium cigars by the FDA is now on hold and Judge Mehta has advised the parties to file papers on the appropriate action which could include stopping the regulation of premium cigars altogether or asking the FDA to reconsider its regulation based on the overlooked evidence.
In his 19-page opinion, Judge Mehta, among other things, faulted the FDA for “waving away evidence of actual, current usage patterns” of premium cigars. According to Cigar Journal, he explained that the FDA’s “Final Deeming Rule obscures the real math” about a study on youth usage of premium cigars, which is that 0.1 per cent of all youth studied preferred premium cigars.
“In 2016, FDA decided to regulate premium cigars and apply the same massive and costly regulatory scheme that was developed for cigarettes onto handcrafted premium cigars. For the past five years, we have been living in regulatory purgatory…,” said Drew Newman, general counsel and fourth-generation owner of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. “Congress gave FDA the authority to regulate tobacco to address youth access and addiction. For nearly a decade, we have presented evidence to FDA confirming that children do not smoke premium cigars, that adults enjoy premium cigars in moderation, and the health effects of such moderate use limited,” he said.