I stopped in my nearest B&M shop today (mostly cigars, no pipe tobacco that I'm interested in) and asked the old gent at the counter what the scoop was on the FDA regs. Here's what he said: clear sailing if the pipe tobacco was marketed prior to 2007. After that the FDA regs kick in, and no one knows how it will turn out. It makes no sense, applied to pipe tobacco, because the tobaccos used prior to 2007 are the same tobaccos used after that date and would be used in the future. Tobacco is a plant. It doesn't change from one decade to the next. It's a case of regulators over reaching and not knowing what or who they're regulating.
My .02: This is an example of what George Will calls the administrative state at work. The regs about to be imposed were not created by elected representatives but by groups of anonymous technical experts who can't be bothered by public preferences, are insulated from public reaction and are oblivious to the ground level consequences of their actions. It's typical of the technocrat POV. We're doing good, how can anyone not be on board with that?
I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said that due process guarantees did not simply mean that a certain process was followed by the government. It meant that the result was reasonable and fair. The modern technocrat will publicly insist on honoring the rights of individuals, but will privately work to encumber the exercise of those rights with onerous expense and drawn out administrative burdens. That's what we're seeing once again.
