Normal cigarettes?

January 5, 2009 8:35 PM

Fire Safe Cigarettes - they taste different, leave a film in my throat, and generally disappoint. Even imports like dunhills are carrying the FSC badge. Is there any way (in SF) I can get my good old fashioned smokes?
posted by muscat to society & culture (10 comments total)

?! I just googled fsc and that is a bloody fricken abomination. Goddamned dirty move by the anti-smoking movement.

<shudder>

Can you still mail-order cartons of American Spirits from the manufacturer?

When I was in Iowa City, there were shops that actually carried foreign-foreign smokes (ie., illegally imported foreign tobacco) - albeit at rather inflated prices (based on what they likely paid 'wholesale').
posted by porpoise at 8:47 PM on January 5

If you were in L.A. I'd send you to Sixth and Alvarado for the "sneaked over the border" smokes. Look to the Latino community and news stands and cheap smokes from Mexico, they probably came over the boarder in a trash bag but like Mexican Coca-Cola (without the HFCS), it's the old good stuff....
Pisses me off too, one of those CA laws to try and keep you from burning down the house.
Mail order is likely to send you the FSC safe ones anyway if you order from CA... It's the law.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:00 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

You could roll your own if worse comes to worse since the fire safe method uses different paper. It's cheaper anyway. Or you should be able to order non fsc online I would imagine, I mean it's not like they don't make them anymore.
posted by dead cousin ted at 9:01 PM on January 5

These are all the states with FSC legislation btw.
posted by dead cousin ted at 9:02 PM on January 5

You could start rolling your own, I don't think Drum or Bali Shag are fire safe.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:10 PM on January 5

Another vote for rolling your own.

Have been making my own for 5 - 6 years, using real, honest tobacco instead of the reconstituted stuff in commercial cigarettes. Use whatever paper you like, figure $11 - $14 per carton.

(Slightly more detail for anyone interested; it's not rolling, per se -- you use prepackaged tubes with filters already in them, your choice of how much filter, what kind of tobacco, flavors, etc., and a little machine that injects the tobacco as you pull the lever. Simple, easy, and with a bit of practice you can make a carton's worth in an hour while watching TV).
posted by nonliteral at 9:44 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

As much as i'd love to pass for class by rolling my own... I'm still hoping to find something storebought. Anyone know a genuine tobacconist in SF?
posted by muscat at 9:49 PM on January 5

I had no idea this had occurred! It is a bittersweet thank you I offer with my answer.

For genuine tobacconists, you're looking at Grant's downtown, whom I believe do not sell cigarettes (pipes and cigars). "Sherlock's" or whatever it's called up on Sansome nr. Pine (?) might be a little more amenable. Cigarettes are such a mass-market item I fear the only way around this is going to be grey-markets, like above. I do like nonliteral's option, too.
posted by rhizome at 11:14 PM on January 5

Try Nat Sherman's. They are a little pricey, but if you are already on Dunhills, I don't imagine you will care.
posted by parmanparman at 6:33 AM on January 6

Try ordering from a reservation like this one. Evidently they no longer have their stock online, but you can call and ask what they carry. They are very helpful and friendly. The smokes I've ordered from them have not been self-extinguishing.

(I don't understood the "fire-safe" thing, as besides tasting like crap, the new ciggies seem much more liable to start ashtray fires. Blech.)
posted by torticat at 7:35 AM on January 6