Pipe Smokers Intelligencer

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of what will be a series of interviews with industry experts and others on the state and future of tobacco in America today. This first interview was done July 21 in Knoxville, TN., when Rocky Patel, the cigar manufacturer, dropped in to meet and greet at the Leaf&Ale Tobacco Shop.

Rocky Patel, slim of hip and keen of eye, is well known and respected in the tobacco world of cigars.

He is like a rock star, which was quite evident recently in Knoxville when local tobacconist Leave & Ale had him in for a cigar extravaganza.

Rocky signed his autograph to full boxes of his famous brands, to photos and enjoyed the large crowd that jammed inside the small shop in a Knoxville shopping center.

Patel is probably unique in the cigar world, as well as that of tobacco overall. His brands are some of the most desired in the world, and he built his company from the bottom up.

He comes at this with an attorney’s eye for detail. Before cigars, Patel made his living in Los Angeles as a product liability and entertainment attorney.

Just about the time the cigar world was booming, Patel was talked into investing in cigars, and the rest is sort of history, albeit a bumpy history.

Today, Patel, an enthusiastic, charismatic man, is on the road almost year-round pushing his cigars, talking to people and discussing the state of tobacco in the U.S.

That isn’t one of his feel-good subjects. You get the idea talking to him that he’d rather talk cigars.

I cornered him quickly while he was in the midst of shaking hands, signing his John Henry to mucho cigar boxes and photos.

My questions were not about how fast he was selling the Decades and The Edges (they were flying out the door, actually, and I barely snagged a couple before they were history)

The problem in America today, he says, to translate what is taking place with tobacco into a loss of private rights.

“People need to be educated,” he says. “They are losing privileges, and one of them is premium cigars.

“Premium cigars are an art form. They are individually hand made. We smoke them to enjoy, to relax. This is not a habit like cigarettes.”

Through excise taxes and the Food and Drug Administration, Patel says the tobacco industry faces the real threat of being taxed out of existence.

And, to his mind, taxing cigars and tobacco to such an extent is so shortsighted.

“Unemployment is high in the U.S. (hovering around 10 percent in a nation of more than 300 million).

“But in the Dominican Republic (where he has tobacco fields) you could put 500,000 people out of work.

“Already the U.S. has problems with Chavez in Venezuela,” he says.

Cutting the market in the U.S. forces people in other cigar-producing countries like Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Panama and Brazil to cut back, which gives leftists governments an opportunity.

He says he has found by working Congressional halls in Washington that many politicians are just not aware of what is going on with tobacco.

“The staffs (Congressional) understand,” he says. There is now a congressional cigar association for staff members and he smiles when thinking about the politicians.

“They like their cigars, too.”

If America is to come out of this trend, Patel says, people will have to become more attuned to what is happening not only in the world of tobacco, but also in their native rights.

They are being slowly but surely eroded today.

It is cigars today, and tomorrow, who knows what right is going to pass into the hellbox of history.

Patel said in a published interview a couple of years ago that his biggest concern today is not about growing his company (today pumping out more than 16 million sticks a year), and not about grabbing more of the market share.

It is that with one simple signature in Washington, the federal government can wipe out an industry.

He implores all tobacco users to become more aware of legislation, both state and national, and what impact it can have on the industry as a whole.

Without awareness, without action, the cigars and other forms of tobacco we enjoy today could go away.

Overnight.