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Five key facts about tobacco taxation — 18 Comments

  1. Maybe, just maybe, the moronic public will actually wake up and realise the crusade against smoking never has been, nor will it ever be about health. Instead they reap the “benefits” of the mahoosive amount of tax smokers pump into the system. What’ll happen to all those things if tobacco control eventually gets what it wants?

    by the way, couldn’t find the share buttons – you been fiddling in the engine room again?

    • If TC ever gets its ultimate “goal” it will be redundant and out of a job.  This is why the goal is to keep the cash rollin in, not to stop people using tobacco.

      Bugger!  Yes, I disabled the Share thing [now reactivated].  Been having some problems with the site overloading the server so I have been doing some drastic pruning and tweaking.  The problem is that this site is too popular?  Hah!

  2. You’re welcome Grandad. I just knew you would be able to express my thoughts on this intellecutal highlight far better than I as a non-native speaker of English ever could. 😉

  3. Dear Grandad,
    Why don’t you grow the stuff? Unlike pot, it’s even legal. I’m a 12+ year ex-smoker but I used to love the French bakee – it must be possible to grow it even in the cloudy and boggy dampness of Ireland shirly?? And who knows what might be possible in a glasshouse or pollytunnel. Maybe you could rent out space and supply seeds and instructions to bakee growing tourists $$$ ? The world could be your lobster (or indeed, any marine crustacean).
    Cheers, gareth

    • Interesting!  He even has pipe tobacco plants. 

      The problem lies in the flavour.  It would be like suggesting to a whiskey buff that he distil his own poteen – it might be alcohol but it ain’t a fine whiskey.

  4. I wrote a letter recently to the local business chamber informing them of the effect rising tobacco taxes have on the income of local small businesses. I explained that I have no intention of quiting smoking which means because of tobacco tax increases I have had to make cuts in other areas. This means less visits to coffee shops, the fish & chip shop, cake shop etc. I told the local newspaper I will no longer be buying their paper six days per week. The more money I have to send to Canberra in tobacco tax the less I have to spend locally.

  5. You can grow the plants perfectly easily in Ireland. You don’t need polytunnels or greenhouses.There are only a few critical things. First, ensure that your seeding compost is not cold – around 20C is nice. You can use any container you wish to. I have an ordinary propagator (unheated) with 72 cells. I fill the cells with seeding compost (but ordinary general purpose compost is fine) and put the propagator on a shelf in the kitchen which is over a radiator for a couple of days. Then I sprinkle a few seeds in each cell. No need to cover them them up with more compost. After three or four days, tiny white dots appear – the seeds have germinated. They need thinning out later. When the seedlings are about 2″ tall, I transplant them into 2″ pots. 

    The second critical thing is not to plant out until all danger of frost has passed. Early May should be fine.

    Anyone interested could read this:

    https://growingandcuringtobacco.wordpress.com

    The main thing is to treat it as a hobby and don’t expect too much.

    Oh, and you need to germinate around now to have the plants ready for May planting out.

    • This is getting interesting!  [not that every other dose of comments isn’t!].  Is that your own site?  [Just wondering, as the link – since amended – led to the site admin area]

       

      • I wrote it. I did so because the advice I got when I bought my first seeds was rather minimalist. The link is to the PDF that I created. I want it to stand alone. Things are getting very sticky here in the UK. Tobacco Control is going mad, and MPs are allowing it. They have invented a new phrase: ‘Controlled activity’. There is no duty on snuff, but making it is a ‘controlled activity’. Our MPs are not protecting us against the tyranny. There is no ban on growing the plants (lots of Nicotiana plants are decorative). The ‘control’ is on transporting or holding ‘the waste’ (the dead stuff). From 1st April 2017, you need a permit to import leaf. That was sneaked into a recent Finance Act. 

        I note your statement ‘since amended’. Does that mean that you had to change the link? I am surprised because I copied and pasted the URL for the PDF. Ah well – good on yer, mate. 

        It is very important to regard growing the plants as a hobby. It really is. A friend of mine grows all sorts of different varieties, but not in large quantities – a few plants of each. The real ‘fun’ is in the curing. Again, there is a critical aspect, which is the maturity of the leaves. That is why it is a good idea to germinate early indoors. The seedlings grow very slowly at first, so you want them to have time to become reasonably well developed before you plant them outdoors, so that they have a good chance to mature during our short summer. Ireland is not India or Zimbabwe. 

        The seeds are incredibly small, but they produce huge plants. But they can only do so if the soil is in good repair. I save cig ash and add it to the soil, along with bone meal and home-made compost, mostly consisting of lawn mowings and rotted tea bags. You see what I mean about regarding it as a hobby? My point is that, for the plants to grow so huge, they are greedy feeders. Also, the soil needs to be de-compacted as much as possible. 

        But we are retired, so having an interesting, almost year-round, hobby is good for us. One of the most hateful thing about TC is its demotion of the tobacco plant to the status of a virulent weed, and that all tobacco products are exactly the same. They are most certainly not. 

        We have no protection from tyranny, which is exactly the word to describe TC. It may be ‘tyranny-lite’, but it is still tyranny. 

    • Juni, having acquired an allotment I am planning on growing tobacco this year. Unfortunately I live in the coldest darkest place in the UK, have only a small flat , space is at a premium (most of the space is filled with toys for Granddaughter2-yes I’m a soppy git) . Also I also only have one south facing window and storage heaters which can only be controlled with a day or two’s notice. Planning on getting one of these: https://tinyurl.com/zvp2er2

      An OK idea?

       

      • Hi BD. 

        I see no problem with the Garland etc. It should be fine. Remember to allow the compost to warm up before seeding. A warm, damp atmosphere is just what they like. 

        Germinating in March is fine. I have done that. The only problem is that you are expecting everything to go to plan. I would rather germinate earlier so that I have a chance to start again, if something goes wrong. 

        • Thanks for the opinion on the propagator, appreciate it 🙂

          “The only problem is that you are expecting everything to go to plan”-Junican

          It would be the first time ever anything in my life did! You are of course right , but part of the ‘hobby’ aspect for me is recreating the continental catholic vibe. Plan is , for example, to head most of the plants (if any survive a Norfolk summer and the Slugnami) on St.Jacob’s day. I’d love to get a a decent picture of a cuban ‘ Nuestra Señora de las Nieves ‘ the patron saintess of tobacco growing and have her watching over my patch (although my frothy mouth Proddy  wife might not be so keen….’papist idolatry’ and all that). I hope i have hedged my bets by buying seeds from people who actually grow the stuff themselves (the German ‘charity’ for growing tobacco at home) and choosing sorts that are proven to grow well in similar climes. I know very little about tobacco growing in practice but the idea of trying to grow from seeds of some strain that grows in Kentucky seems a bit risky to me.  Tobacco used to be grown commercially in Norfolk so….

          I have also chosen sorts that only require hanging/air curing not fermenting. As you say, a hobby but one i have put some thought into…and faith into.

    • “Oh, and you need to germinate around now to have the plants ready for May planting out.”-Junican

      My studies, fairly indepth studies, of  French, Belgian, Dutch and German traditional tobacco growing have taught me that pretty much everywhere Germination day was St.Joseph’s (19.March). Often the seeds were placed on wet socks in a low oven or under glass on a bed of boiled earth on straw.  I intend to germinate on that day too, just to get the vibe.

  6. *is Blues & Toons’d to the nearest Burns Unit as he now has 3rd degree scalds in his bladder*

    Claudi, souen Scheiß tu⠀™issch mer nämäj einziehe, macht oam seelissch kapudd…

    • Nah, don’t worry, it doesn’t make me “seelisch kaputt”, it only makes me unbelievably mad.

  7. I obtained individual states’ excise tax rates, and smoking rates for 2006 when about half of states had dramatically increased tobacco taxes, and half had not. I ran a regression. States with high taxes had lower smoking rates only about 35% of the time. For teen smoking, it was only 45% of the time. 

     

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