Swisher Blunts: the consequences of assembly no longer being required

• Published in: Tobacco control p. tc-2024-059153
• Main Authors: Liber, Alex C, Dutra, Lauren M, Gammon, Doris G, Meek, Caroline J, Montgomery, Barrett W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 19.02.2025; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Advertising; Attorneys general; Cannabis; Cigarette industry; Cigarettes; Cigars; Federal regulation; Funding; Industry watch; Licenses; Manufacturers; Marijuana; Marketing; Markets; Non-cigarette tobacco products; Packaging; Public health; Public policy; Settlements & damages; Stretching; Surveillance and monitoring; Tobacco; Tobacco industry; United States > US; Michigan; Non-cigarette tobacco products; Tobacco industry; Public policy; Surveillance and monitoring
• ISSN: 0964-4563; 1468-3318; 1468-3318
• DOI: 10.1136/tc-2024-059153

Each package resembles Swisher Sweets cigarillos in format and flavouring (figure 1) but prominently claims that they are ‘tobacco free’ (using hemp rather than tobacco leaf wrappers), thereby evading jurisdictional authority by the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. The use of the Swisher brand on a non-tobacco product constitutes brand stretching, an advertising tactic where a brand familiar to one product category is applied to a product in a different category.11 Instances of brand stretching in the USA have largely been eliminated for cigarette manufacturers by provisions of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement12 and, for smokeless tobacco manufacturers, by subsequent settlements.13 However, cigar manufacturers that do not sell cigarettes, like Swisher, are not subject to these restrictions.14 Swisher Blunts appears to establish a beachhead in the cannabis market by leveraging existing brand equity from the tobacco market. Regulators for tobacco and cannabis markets should work to prevent cobranding, brand stretching or implicit promotion of cannabis/tobacco couse as well as prioritise funding to identify efficacious policies.20 As legal cannabis markets have begun operating on every continent,21 public health actors must ensure that WHO FCTC (World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) Article 13 guidelines prohibiting tobacco brand stretching are implemented where possible22 and that cannabis market expansion does not spur additional tobacco use and sales.