Sometimes Bruce Parrish likes to smoke a Fuente Fuente OpusX when he mows his Westminster lawn. He can't buy the $20 Dominicans, described by Cigar.com as "perhaps the rarest and highest rated brand in the world," at his local tobacconist, he says.
So he takes advantage of the modern economy and orders them online from Pennsylvania, whence they arrive by mail. Or at least they used to.
Starting May 1 it became illegal to ship cigars directly to Maryland consumers, according to an interpretation of a 2010 law by Comptroller Peter Franchot. As a result, smokers have been bombarding Franchot with combustible emails.
"If they're going to apply that to a tobacco product, the next thing is going to be you can't buy clothing online — or you can't buy anything online," says Parrish, a 50-year-old software engineer. "Just another example of the nanny liberals taking away our rights."
It's a complex issue touching on tax collection, tax fairness and interstate commerce. Even cigar dealers seem to have mixed feelings, with some Maryland store owners reportedly favoring the restrictions on out-of-state competitors with mail-order businesses.
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