Bigger Threat to Tobacco Lovers - Taxes or Availability?

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newbroom

Lifer
Jul 11, 2014
6,087
6,394
Florida
It seems to me when I think of the drought that has gripped the State of California and many other parts of our Nation, that we're looking down the barrel of an environmental shotgun, and that effects of Climate Change are rapidly changing the earth's agricultural 'footprint'.

Add to that the seemingly constant political turmoil in tobacco growing countries and imagine what would be available to the pipe smoker should these conditions prevent growers from bringing crops to market.
A lot of us are in the process of acquiring both varieties and quantities of leaf for obvious reasons.

It's probably moot, but, which would you think is a greater incentive to 'hoard'?

 

rigmedic1

Lifer
May 29, 2011
3,896
75
Taxes are taxes. I would pay what I had to to get the leaf that I want. Availability, on the other hand, drives me to stock what I can in my cellar. I have some Princes Street layed away since that is no longer available. Syrian blend will be gone soon enough due to politics and war. I have to consider that the blends that I like will not be available forever.

 

judcole

Lifer
Sep 14, 2011
7,149
32,911
Detroit
Syrian blend will be gone soon enough due to politics and war.

There's been no Syrian latakia available since 1998. I was talking to Per Jeppsen (IIRC) of MacBaren at the Chicago show; he says they'll be out of Syrian latakia before the end of the decade.

The drought in California is made worse by the billions of gallons of water used in bottled water and fracking.

I have a cellar, but it's not hoarding; I'm deliberately aging these blends. I'm not really worried.

 

sajgre

Starting to Get Obsessed
Aug 13, 2010
139
1
In Slo we are still far from anti war as strong as in States but from what I read I would say that by far the biggest threat are insurance companies.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
There could be a tobacco "famine," but I doubt it. Taxes could go up to a degree that most pipe smokers would limit their use. Some of these dire scenarios are based in actual trends and threatened legislation. Many doom scenarios are the product, ironically, of some comfort and security that entices the secure and comfortable to invent disturbing, impending problems to make their lives seem more meaningful and interesting. It turns out people aren't always happy about routine and physical comfort. People seek some stress and anxiety, even if they have to imagine it. During the Soviet years, the Russian people actually suffered continual shortages of everything and stood in line for hours every day to get bad food and bad merchandise. Now that things are better, some Russians pine for those days. Human psychology is truly strange. I do keep a wary eye on the pipe tobacco supply and price, but I don't really expect it to become scarce or vastly overpriced. I could be wrong.

 

jimbo44

Might Stick Around
Aug 2, 2010
62
0
I'd say availability in that there are less B&M's with all the mail ordering and it may become illegal to purchase tobacco by mail.

 

framitz

Can't Leave
Oct 25, 2013
314
0
Availability remember when dunhill wasn't sold in us.
Taxes are irrelevant. Look at our friends in Canada or Australia They still manage. In us buy online to avoid state differences. Washington state is problem. Again it"s availability. Shel

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
Eventually many of our favorite blends will go the way of the do do because there will be no leaf to make them. There are states that just don't want tobacco grown in them. Also taxes will alao play into the equation because people are not going to pay 35 a tin for something they used to pay 9 for, mmaking sales drop a huge degree making companies go out of business. I see the little guys like Wessex, Fribbourg&Treyer, John Aylesbury being some of the first to bite the dust.
Betweeen the no leaf scenario and taxes, our future is not bright. It will not affect me as I have stocked up but I feel badly for those that cannot due to financial concerns. Soon we will be like Australia and if that happens, companies will not survive as the US is the largest buyers of pipe tobacco.

 
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