Hello to you all from here Down Under. Just a quick update, this morning I purchased a 50 gram tin of Peterson's Elizabethan Mixture and a 50 gram tin of Peterson's Irish Cask. This transaction can stand as a general warning to those of you in other nations around the world yet to feel the full weight of government tobacco policy and where it can lead. My 2 innocuous tins of pipe tobacco cost me ... AUD$260... !!! We are being slowly squeezed out of our ability to enjoy a quiet pipe of quality tobacco as a pleasant pastime. I'm sure others have posted info regarding Australia's extraordinarily tough stance towards all things tobacco and, I freely admit that smoking tobacco can potentially affect one's health. But, adults of tax-paying and voting age should be allowed to freely choose what level of risk they are willing to expose themselves to rather than have it dictated to them like little children. As in many other countries, alcohol is a massive behemoth of an industry down here and is widely available and, alongside the gambling industry, is thrust in the faces of every man, woman and child on a daily basis. Yet one cannot enjoy a quiet pipe of one's favourite Virginia blend on a warm, spring afternoon, or sit in contemplation of an autumn evening gently sipping on a bowl of fine English pipe tobacco. I believe these types of government taxation and regulation will be spreading far and wide. Surely, it is only a matter of time. Apologies for such a grim post!! Wishing my fellow pipe-smokers all the best.
Maddness in Oz...
- Thread starter Makembake
- Start date
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This hurts just to read. I hate it for the Oz members. Wish there was a way for us stateside members to help without the risk of confiscation
I really don't understand the extreme hatred against tobacco. There are other things that will do harm to human body such as alcohol, caffeine, sugar, number of so called recreation drugs. But tobacco is hand picked by almost all governments as number 1 evil substance. Just doesn't make sense.
Apparently tax paying voters have made their decision and tobacco isn't acceptable. Thank your neighbors and friends who voted for current crowd of elected rule makers. We smokers are on the losing the end of the battle, most likely the war. But, tobacco will always be available for those ... wait for it ... who can afford it.
Life is a bitch and ... then we die.
Can you grow tobacco there or order whole leaf and make your own?
I’ll send you some seeds… for $800. 
JK, I wouldn’t charge you for seeds.
JK, I wouldn’t charge you for seeds.
So, like tobacco doesn’t grow there, or if you grow tobacco, the government helicopters will spot your thirty or so plants in your garden and deport you to England?
Tobacco grows prolifically down under. Growing even one plant without a license is deemed a violation of the customs excise act. It’s a bull shit law, and even the NZ government recognised it for that.
Here you can grow as much as you want, as it technically doesn’t become a “tobacco product” until you have processed it. Also unlike our OZ brethren, here we are granted a personal use exemption to the customs act which provides each adult the right to process 5kg of tobacco per year provided they grow it themselves.
Well, the thing about tobacco is that even here in tobacco country if someone saw it in your garden, they wouldn’t have a clue as to what it was, unless they were involved in tobacco farming themself. I’ll wager a gold ring that the local police couldn’t identify tobacco from sorghum.
Agreed. I just gave my foxgloves to many sheep pellets and they have gone leafy
Dave,
Your thumbs are obviously much greener than mine.
I had absolutely ZERO success with the seeds you sent last year
Now you know why my wife has banned me from our garden
Humans have existed for several million years.
As animals went, they weren't fast, or strong, or have big claws or fangs, or any of that.
Yet they managed to survive and prevail over those animals that did. We should have been lunch for such predators---easy to catch and couldn't fight back---but we weren't.
Why? Because we were clever, had built-in manual maipulators, and we discoved that cooperating in groups massively increased our ability to survive.
Anyone born who did NOT have the drive to be in a group was quickly removed from the gene pool by the environment.
Evolution did the rest.
One of the legacies of that evolutionary success is the grouping instinct---the urge to be part of a tribe---is a powerful, non-stop, need-drive that never wavers, and affects absolutely everything.
In the case of tobacco The Tribe has decided that tobacco is Evil. Full stop. Rationality, logic, or facts have nothing to do with it.
This is such a broad and deep minefield, an absolute can of worms! I've enjoyed reading all your comments here and I can sense the passion boiling up from below the surface. The laws and regulations seem to just box you in and, before you've realised what's happening, you're trapped and cannot get out. Government interference should be so much more restrained than it is. The older I get, the more I believe this. I often look at the US Constitution & Bill of Rights and feel a real sense of admiration and envy. Checks and balances are so important. Anyhow, I feel I'm beginning to state little more than the obvious now. I guess one thing that can and should be said is to enjoy your pipes, your tobacco and your right to choose one way or the other.
The crazy thing is you're still allowed to eat Vegemite in public.
My father had a Grade A milk barn where about every afternoon as I was growing up several wise men (plus a few fools) would gather to discuss just about every subject under the sun.
Several times the subject of substitutes for tobacco came up. During our American Civil War the South produced most of the real tobacco, and our ancestors were Yankees.
The first lesson was not to smoke “Indian tobacco” and I heeded those warnings.
en.m.wikipedia.org
But I did try all the other substitutes.
Dried and aged corn silks, remoistened to tone down the harshness, is delicious to smoke.
Common sage grass, is a good substitute.
Also smokable are coffee grounds, dried grapevine, grain sorghum (milo) and my favorite tobacco substitute, mullein:
en.m.wikipedia.org
At least in the United States, if not the entire civilized world, the State of Missouri is the most sin and vice friendly jurisdiction. Our state taxes on tobacco, booze, and medical grade cannabis are trifling, and even violation of our public smoking laws is an infraction with a small fine the only punishment. I hope we stay free to sin to our heart’s content.
But if the do gooders ever corner me, I’ll smoke mullein and like it.
—-
Although long used in herbal medicine, no drugs are manufactured from its components.[2] Dioscorides first recommended the plant 2000 years ago, considering it useful as a folk medicine for pulmonary diseases.[75] Leaves were smoked to attempt to treat lung ailments, a tradition that in America was rapidly transmitted to Native American peoples.[31][76] The Zuni people, however, use the plant in poultices of powdered root applied to sores, rashes, and skin infections. An infusion of the root is also used to treat athlete's foot.[77] All preparations meant to be drunk have to be finely filtered to eliminate the irritating hairs.[54]
—-
Several times the subject of substitutes for tobacco came up. During our American Civil War the South produced most of the real tobacco, and our ancestors were Yankees.
The first lesson was not to smoke “Indian tobacco” and I heeded those warnings.
Lobelia inflata - Wikipedia
But I did try all the other substitutes.
Dried and aged corn silks, remoistened to tone down the harshness, is delicious to smoke.
Common sage grass, is a good substitute.
Also smokable are coffee grounds, dried grapevine, grain sorghum (milo) and my favorite tobacco substitute, mullein:
Verbascum thapsus - Wikipedia
At least in the United States, if not the entire civilized world, the State of Missouri is the most sin and vice friendly jurisdiction. Our state taxes on tobacco, booze, and medical grade cannabis are trifling, and even violation of our public smoking laws is an infraction with a small fine the only punishment. I hope we stay free to sin to our heart’s content.
But if the do gooders ever corner me, I’ll smoke mullein and like it.
—-
Although long used in herbal medicine, no drugs are manufactured from its components.[2] Dioscorides first recommended the plant 2000 years ago, considering it useful as a folk medicine for pulmonary diseases.[75] Leaves were smoked to attempt to treat lung ailments, a tradition that in America was rapidly transmitted to Native American peoples.[31][76] The Zuni people, however, use the plant in poultices of powdered root applied to sores, rashes, and skin infections. An infusion of the root is also used to treat athlete's foot.[77] All preparations meant to be drunk have to be finely filtered to eliminate the irritating hairs.[54]
—-
The majorit of folks are like that. Then there are those who can't resist the urge to be out finding new country away from the "maddening crowd." There once was room for the anti-social to remove themselves, for their safety and that of others. Not so much anymore. 'tis a sad, sad thing.
You have to be dedicated to smoke in Australia, really dedicated. My trouble with our legislation is it’s not completely overarching. Cigarettes and pipe tobacco have been lumbered into the same category whilst cigars still have some loopholes, not from the tax but you can import without a licence. I have no problem with the tax but what I can’t stand is legislation banning me from choosing a product/products offshore and bringing them in in quantities that I’m comfortable at. This right has been removed and I think it’s wrong!