Replication might be difficult, since we don't know what exactly has been added to the tobacco over time (harvest to tin). Best bet, I would think, is to have the crystals analyzed. Who volunteers to pay for it? ;-)
I think that there are probably several distinct phenomena going on here that collectively pass as "plume". Some is biological, no doubt. But these are crystals. What we need is a pipe smoker that works in university science research who would be willing to slip in some extracurricular experimentation....