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Local company sues Michigan
By Karl Henkel
GIRARD
A local company plans to sue the state of Michigan after its treasury department told 300 Michigan businesses to stop using the company’s cigarette-rolling machine.
RYO Machine Rental of Girard, which manufactures a 790-pound, $30,000 rolling machine, claims the state is violating a federal injunction granted in December.
Business owner Phil Accordino said Monday the original September federal ruling — which deemed his machines qualified as cigarette-rolling machines — is bogus.
He said a cigarette- manufacturing machine can produce 20,000 cigarettes a minute, 1,000 times more than the 20 his machine produces.
“There’s just no mistaking what our machine is and what a cigarette- manufacturing machine is,” he said. “It’s like a kitty cat and a tiger; you can definitely tell the difference.”
Nearly 300 businesses in Michigan were warned in March by that state’s treasury department that cigarette-rolling machines, now in 33 states, are illegal.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in September said that retailers with RYO machines are commercially manufacturing cigarettes, but a federal court issued an injunction in December that stayed that decision pending further review.