Bills advance on roll-your-own tobacco shops

Roll-your-own cigarette stores could be headed for a Virginia endangered retailers list as bills to treat those merchants as tobacco manufacturers burn through the General Assembly.

Separate bills to reclassify shops with the automated rolling machines unanimously cleared a key House of Delegates committee and won full Senate approval on Monday.

The rolling devices stuff loose tobacco into paper tubes to produce a carton's worth of cigarettes in about 10 minutes. Several stores with the machines have sprung up in South Hampton Roads over the past year.

Patrons and other defenders of the niche industry say the machines make personalized cigarettes at a price lower than commercial brands.

Legislation targeting those businesses is backed by Altria, parent company of Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker.

Company officials contend that roll-your-own products can be sold for less because retailers avoid paying the same taxes as traditional tobacco manufacturers and wholesalers.