AUGUSTA – Special-order cigar smokers are fuming over a new law designed to keep youths from ordering tobacco products over the Internet, saying it’s affecting legal-aged cigar puffers who can no longer order their favorite brands.

Scores of angry consumers have been bombarding the state with calls to complain their rights are being squashed and their lives managed too closely, according to legislative staff who have been taking calls.

Some say their favorite brands aren’t available anywhere near their towns. A few slam down the phone in frustration and anger.

“It’s an incredible intrusion on my rights,” said Pat Michaud, a portrait photographer from Augusta, who bought direct from Thompson Cigar in Tampa for years until Thompson dropped Maine from its direct-order business Sept. 13.

UPS has also stopped delivering tobacco products to consumers in Maine because of the law’s requirements.

“It’s a little too Big Brother. Sort of burned the house to catch the mouse,” said Michaud, who is 50 and is now thinking of having his cigars mailed to a friend in neighboring New Hampshire.

But those who wrote the law defend it as fair because it holds all tobacco retailers – whether the corner store or a mail-order house – to the same standards for checking IDs and paying tobacco taxes.

Maine’s law that took effect Sept. 13 makes it illegal for anyone except licensed tobacco retailers to sell tobacco products to consumers in Maine.

It also requires tobacco retailers, when taking the first order from a consumer for delivery, to get a copy of a government-issued document that provides the buyer’s name, current address, photograph and date of birth.

Retailers must also get signed, written statements documenting that each buyer is of legal age – at least 18 – to purchase tobacco products in the state.

Buyers must document that they understand that it’s illegal to purchase tobacco products for subsequent resale or delivery to anyone under 18. Tobacco retailers must verify purchasers’ ages using a database of government records before shipping.

Submitting tobacco orders in the name of another person can result in fines of as much as $10,000.

The law was passed with support of an unlikely alliance of cigarette companies and health and anti-smoking groups. The cigar industry is dismayed its products were put under the bill’s reach, and a spoksman is concerned it will catch on elsewhere.

“To the extent that it’s such a precedent, it’s a concern,” said Norm Sharp of the Cigar Association of America Inc.

New York in 2000 prohibited deliveries of Internet and mail-order shipments of cigarettes to consumers, and Congress is considering a law that has many similarities to Maine’s, said John Archard of the Maine attorney general’s office, who helped draft the Maine law.

Tobacco retailers say they will benefit from the new law because they will pick up new tobacco sales. They also say the new law clarifies state policy to ensure that no tobacco products can be sold in Maine unless taxes are paid, plugging a revenue leak that existed under the previous law.

“The law is to my advantage,” said Mike Discatio, manager of Joe’s Smoke Shop and Variety Store in Portland. “It isn’t right for people off the street to buy cigars cheaper than I pay.”

Sharp said he doesn’t believe the state stands to gain much money in new tax revenues by cracking down on mail-order cigar dealers. And including cigar mail-order companies under the law makes little sense because few minors care for cigars, he said.

Under the Maine law, the person to whom the tobacco products are addressed must be of legal age to purchase tobacco products and must sign for the package. If the buyer is under 27 years old, a government-issued identification must be shown at the time of delivery.

UPS stopped consumer tobacco deliveries in Maine because it would have had to modify its procedures for one product, but it still delivers to licensed retailers in the state, said spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg.

Like other states, Maine has taken numerous steps to reduce smoking among adults and prevent youths from ever starting. Maine has raised cigarette taxes steeply, banned smoking in all public buildings including restaurants and non-Indian bingo halls. As of Jan. 1, 2004, smoking in bars will be outlawed.