North Dakota Legislature Rejects Ban on Cigar Shipments

A bill that would have banned the ability for consumers to buy cigars and have them shipped to addresses in North Dakota has failed to gain steam in the North Dakota House of Representatives.

H.B. 1357 would have banned all remote tobacco sales, meaning that consumers would have needed to purchase all tobacco products in North Dakota in person. This would have applied to purchases made from retailers in North Dakota and out-of-state stores. Fortunately for cigar smokers, the bill failed to pass a second reading. Yesterday, the North Dakota House of Representatives voted 81 to 12 against H.B. 1357.

Bans on remote sales are rare, though, coincidentally, neighboring South Dakota had one until 2022. The PACT Act prevents all cigarettes and most e-cigarettes from being shipped to consumers on a federal level, meaning that remote sales bans only affect the sale of cigars, pipe tobacco, hookah tobacco, RYO, and other smaller categories.

In other good news for cigar smokers, a bill that would allow for smoking at cigar bars and lounges—something currently banned in North Dakota—recently passed the North Dakota House of Representatives and is now moving onto the Senate.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.