Candy cigarettes display

A soda shop in Minnesota got into possible trouble for selling candy cigarettes.  I remember our local family-owned grocery store in our small town used to carry boxes of candy cigarettes in the late 80s/early 90s for 10 cents a box (and I recall buying some).  I don’t smoke myself, but I can certainly understand how this is part of a larger concern over smoking.  On one hand, they’re just candy, but it’s possible that it could be perceived to be imitable (though I wouldn’t be the best example for this proposed chain of causality).

I wasn’t really aware that they were still being made or sold, though admittedly I wasn’t looking.  The grocery store back home stopped carrying them at some point in the 90s.  (The store was eventually sold, and they were open, closed, open, and now closed again.  Such are the realities of rural small town grocery stores.)

They have been banned in some places, but the U.S. is not one of them.  A misinterpreted article is still available online.  The FDA was actually referring to putting certain flavorings in real cigarettes.