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jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,074
Carmel Valley, CA
G'day! Welcome to the forum.

I loved my trip down under, got to the two big cities, Tassie, and across to Rota Rua.

You can put your location in your Profile—(please!—because people will forget!) That will save questions in the future as to where you live when you later mention local stores, weather, tobacco prices, availability, regulations, location of photos, wildfires, air quality, etc., etc..
Under your avatar, (top right, left most of three symbols) you choose "Account Details", which brings up "My Account". "My Location" is halfway down. Whatever you're comfortable with- town, city, county, state. Just country if you must.
 
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OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,563
71
Sydney, Australia
Thanks everyone for your warm welcomes. It is good to feel a part of a like-minded community. I am lucky that, here in Sydney, I have a couple of friends who love their pipes, as well as quite a few who are into cigars, so I have been able to organise a "smoko" (Oz slang) from time to time. While I smoke mostly in solitude - it's downtime for me - doing something you enjoy with mates is much more pleasurable.

What I do miss is being able to light up in a bar or smoking lounge after a nice meal, with a jazz band or a piano tinkling away in a corner. When I was last in France, after a wonderful meal, the sommelier wheeled up a trolley laden with cognacs and armagnacs, along with a humidor. Having chosen a fine cognac and cigar, I was then informed that "regrettably, if monsieur wishes to smoke, it will have to be outdoors" ! I see this as an insidious erosion of civilised living.
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,074
Carmel Valley, CA
Indeed, erosion of civilised living is happening seemingly everywhere. And, indeed, it's insidious, perhaps unstoppable.

At least stateside, we don't yet pay the onerous taxes and see as many legislative efforts to eradicate tobacco as our friends in many countries, esp in Oz and NZ.
 

OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,563
71
Sydney, Australia
Hi JonGuss,
Re: civilised vs civilized
There's the UK vs USA dichotomy for you - unlike the USA who severed the umbilical cord quite some time ago, we in Oz seem strangely reluctant to do so. We're still influenced in lots of ways by the Mother Country, including spelling - hence "s" rather than "z"
 

edger

Lifer
Dec 9, 2016
2,988
22,299
74
Mayer AZ
Sounds like you’ve been adding some more venomous creatures to your legislature. I thought you had enough of those down under. Keep the faith and welcome! I’ll drink a Fosters Ale to better times for smokers in your country.
 

OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,563
71
Sydney, Australia
Edger, too right.
The latest idiocy is the talk of decriminalising drug use ans supply, as they remain clueless on how to deal with a burgeoning problem, esp with ice. If this goes through, then graffiti sets will face far stiffer penalties than drug dealers. Go figure. A great country going to pot - pun intended
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
G'day Ozpiper and welcome.

I'm NW of Sydney.
Before the new laws were introduced, I bought as much tobacco as my limited income allowed.
Aussies on social media who ''knew a guy'' claimed the new laws would only affect ''commercial quantity'' but I had a bad feeling.

I'm also growing my own. It's a bit of a steep learning curve re; drying and curing but anything worth doing well takes effort.
Tobacco needs at least one year of age - my fresh Burley aint the best but after one year the difference is remarkable.

If you'd like to do the same shoot me a PM and I'll post you enough Burley seeds to get you started. [gratis of course]
By the end of Summer I should have enough Oriental seeds to share.
[I'll also give you some tips on importation but only if ya promise not to blab openly on forums and social media. They are watching]
 
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chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
Thanks everyone for your warm welcomes. It is good to feel a part of a like-minded community. I am lucky that, here in Sydney, I have a couple of friends who love their pipes, as well as quite a few who are into cigars, so I have been able to organise a "smoko" (Oz slang) from time to time. While I smoke mostly in solitude - it's downtime for me - doing something you enjoy with mates is much more pleasurable.

What I do miss is being able to light up in a bar or smoking lounge after a nice meal, with a jazz band or a piano tinkling away in a corner. When I was last in France, after a wonderful meal, the sommelier wheeled up a trolley laden with cognacs and armagnacs, along with a humidor. Having chosen a fine cognac and cigar, I was then informed that "regrettably, if monsieur wishes to smoke, it will have to be outdoors" ! I see this as an insidious erosion of civilised living.
Before our so called 'representatives' used the shreiking from the self appointed arbiters of social conscience, the rabid anti-smoking brigade, as an excuse to treat smokers with such contempt, I recall when North Ryde RSL club built a non-smoking area in the bistro with floor to ceiling glass walls.

On busy nights when the normal area was full, the non-smoking area was always no more than 1/3rd occupied.
Diners would wait standing for a table to become vacant before going to the miserable whining arseholes section.

When we had smoking and non-smoking train carriages, the former would usually fill first.

Miserable anti-smokers would get on the smoking carriage just so they could whine and complain about the smoke. As young teenagers, a mate and I entertained ourselves by lighting up extra stinky Gitanes and when we had clove cigarettes we'd pretend to be smoking mary-gee-warna :ROFLMAO:

Many believed it and a few reported us to the conductor. Bloody stupids.
 

chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
Sounds like you’ve been adding some more venomous creatures to your legislature. I thought you had enough of those down under. Keep the faith and welcome! I’ll drink a Fosters Ale to better times for smokers in your country.
G'day Edgar. Can you believe that Fosters is no longer freely available in Oz anymore? [Not in NSW at least]

Since multi-nationals bought out our favourite beers, many of us have switched to the Aussie owned naturally brewed Coopers range; the green label Coopers Pale Ale is particularly good.

z-beer coopers pale ale.jpg
 

edger

Lifer
Dec 9, 2016
2,988
22,299
74
Mayer AZ
G'day Edgar. Can you believe that Fosters is no longer freely available in Oz anymore? [Not in NSW at least]

Since multi-nationals bought out our favourite beers, many of us have switched to the Aussie owned naturally brewed Coopers range; the green label Coopers Pale Ale is particularly good.

View attachment 54157
Thanks for the info. I’ll start looking for Coopers over here. Aussies seem to like hoppy ales and so do I. Keep the faith, brother!
 
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charf

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 10, 2018
575
3,189
New Zealand
Welcome from NZ.

Our government here followed Aussie’s lead several months later because they can’t have any original thoughts themselves. Don’t get me started on our gun law changes.
 
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chopper

Lifer
Aug 24, 2019
1,480
3,317
Edger, too right.
The latest idiocy is the talk of decriminalising drug use ans supply, as they remain clueless on how to deal with a burgeoning problem, esp with ice. If this goes through, then graffiti sets will face far stiffer penalties than drug dealers. Go figure. A great country going to pot - pun intended
Sadly there's no decriminalisation going on anywhere near me.
Although I qualify for the 'medicinal' program on three separate grounds, then PM Turdbull designed the application procedure to be extremely time consuming and inhibitive.
Those who go through the process are insurance patients who can afford the $1,200-$1,500 per month cost of the oil.

Turbull has/had a rather healthy investment in Big pHarma and his wife is/was a chief exec of a BigpHarma multinational.

A small joint nightly eliminates my excruciating chronic nerve pain by at least 95% at worst and completely on most days. The doctors tried to force an antiepileptic onto me over 20 years ago, that eventually destroys the liver, has really unpleasant psychological and emotional side-effects, makes one feel like crap and sudden cessation can kill.
Had I listened to my doctors, I'd be dead like the twelve other Buergers patients I've known over twenty years.

As it turns out, cannabis has an anti-inflammatory effect that has slowed/stopped the progression of my Buergers disease. [How freakn good is that?]

100% of Buergers patients die within three years after diagnosis. I've survived twenty years thanks to what is to me, a miracle plant. Plus I enjoy the buzz that treats depression.

I'm not in any way having a go at you or anyone else. Demonising tobacco pisses me off big time.
I'm way better off than most Aussie smokers because I've got enough tobacco to keep me going [No way will I pay $120 for 50g]

Pipe tobacco should be treated differently to cigarettes.
Tailor made cigs contain 300-600 added chemicals. Pipe tobacco has none [Apart from some that have a little harmless propylene glycol]
One does not need to be a scientist to see that the chemicals are the problem, not the tobacco itself. It's just sheer common-bloody-sense.

The fact remains though that no one in the history of man has died from consuming cannabis. It's a safe and incredibly efficient and versatile medicine that was once the most widely prescribed for that reason.
Thanks to greed and corruption, cannabis was demonised, denying it to those who are suffering.
I'm illegally alive thanks to the very same kind of people who have demonised tobacco.

It's all about the tax revenue. That's why health minister Cun Hunt tried to ban vaporisors.


Message to the mods; I do understand the rules. Not trying to disrespect them but since this is a welcome thread I'm hoping you'll let it slide.
It's a very important issue to me personally and the message needs to be spread.
Thank you puffy
 
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OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,563
71
Sydney, Australia
Hi Chopper, thank you kindly for your offer of seeds to grow my own leaf. Luckily thanks to my obsessive-compulsive personality, I've stocked up enough tobacco to keep me happy for several years. I was avidly looking at TobaccoReviews when I got back into pipes for a heads up on whch tobaccos to try, and bought and bought.

I'm a weekend smoker - my wife does not like the smell of the English/Balkan blends I prefer, so I tend not to go through a lot of tobacco per week. I also have a large stash of cigars which I smoke on occasions now given my preference for pipes - again enough to last years without having to buy any more.

One of those times when being obsessive-compulsive has worked out in my favour
??
 
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