Smokers get resourceful, grow their own tobacco in downturn

I think thats a great Idea but the thing is once all smokers have begin growing and smoking their own
what would the Goverment over tax next.

GAS I think they have taxed the crap out of that as well
DEATH no they taxed the heck out of that too

Well I guess we the smokers have spoken TAX OFF GOVERMENT and NON Smokers

HAVE A PUFFING GREAT DAY

I hope the trend towards low cost DIY alternatives does not become a new cultural mantra for everything from cigarettes to healthcare. I really do not appreciate the thought of purchasing a textbook and a kit to perform a self adminsitered hip replacement, if and when the time comes along...

Do I sense a new business opportunity here. U-Brews for wine and beer have been around for quite a while now. Perhaps some ambitious entrepeneur will come up with a business or franchise for kiln drying tobacco for home growers.

Producing a cigarette that doesn't cost an arm and a leg is a great idea. Why not invent the cigarette that doesn't cost you your life??? Given the state of knowledge and technology I can't imagine why can this not be done? Smokes that deliver nicotine and won't kill you. That's a business opportunity.

Not all smokers are suicidal (I'm sure few of them are) and the strength of an addiction is a relative experience. Some people experience a much more severe degree of difficulty when trying to quit than others. Making a smoker pay out so much financially for a mistake made when they may have been fifteen seems like a harsh sentence. Paying with your life... much worse. Instead of taking a "you smoke, you suck, you're screwed" attitude drawing a dividing line between the smokers and nons, let's afford each other some empathy and understanding and work together towards improving the lives of all people. Perhaps this is the path that leads to the eventual riddance of these problems from our society?

Another Alternative that seems to be more viable than growing your own would be the e-cigarette.

Why is it that the Canadian Government is banning the sale of this new product the e-cigarette.

From the research that I have done, the e-cigarette without question does not pose the same risks to your health as a tobacco cigarette.

Yet the government will not allow this product into Canada, you would think that with all the enourmous amount of Tax dollars taken from the smokers that the government would invest the money required and push through a product such as this as soon as possible

The only thing I can think of is that the government is worried more about losing tax dollars generated from the sale of tobacco cigarettes than the health of the citizens of Canada

The media should inform the general public of this new product

Wow, e-cigarette.

Thanks for that info. It took me about five seconds to find a plethera of information and testimonies from former smokers who are now e-cigarette users. I also found Health Canada's reason for the ban on this product. It has not been approved (or studied) by Health Canada. I came across this statement:

"Although these electronic smoking products may be marketed as a safer alternative to conventional tobacco products and, in some cases, as an aid to quitting smoking, electronic smoking products may pose risks such as nicotine poisoning and addiction," - Health Canada.

... anyone find anything wrong with this line of reasoning? Isn't that the point of the safer alternative? Don't normal cigarettes do this anyways... plus kill you in a variety of potential ways. You can buy normal and extremely harmfull smokes anywhere. What gives?

Governments don't change anything, they are incapable and it's not thier function. They can only increase legislation, taxation, and spending... and they do none of these wisely. Change can only happen with the people.

Lets try supporting Smokers for a change? If we gather up all the opinions from the people who say that smoking has 100's of bad qualities and smoking can even kill! Well lets leave what happens in peoples homes private shall we? Let's take a bigger look at all the extra fun people bring out of the home and display for reasons kept secret. Or secret until someone has the maturity to ask for a reason. Do people what up tp smokers and ask if their trying to kill themselves? Are you trying to kill your kids? Let's ask why are the price of smokes so expensive? Are you hoping people grow their own tabacco? Coffee takes water out of peoples body and in my city there are a dozen different coffee shops all making money selling the same thing. Is coffee good for bone density? Let's take a look at the advertising on the box of smokes. Do we really need that? Does the information on the box really add support to help people stop smoking? People smoke for many different reasons and alot of those reasons are the same as why people use sugar in their foods. Look what sugar can do. We don't even try to stop much when it needs a bit more sugar. Let's drop the price of a pack of smokes. Let's take off the message on the box. Smokes do what they have to do when the places to smoke are taken away so how about cater to the smoke who already knows why they need a smoke and could use a fair price for them. Not everyone wants to grow their own. Smokes like their favorate brands just like people like their own brands of gas.

Rather than make a cigarette that doesn't kill you but still delivers nicotine, why don't we create nicotine free tobacco. I heard that Big Tobacco actually selectively bred their strains to up the amount per cigarette. Now since I can't remember where I heard that, and don't like unsourced information, you can feel free to ignore it. That being said, I'm sure that even without genetic engineering (and knowing what they're smoking anyways, how much more harmful could GMO tobacco be?) we could breed less addictive tobacco. Sure, purists might complain, but I think that a phased-in reduction of the addictive properties of tobacco might help those smokers who don't think that high prices are enough of an incentive to quit. Then, in 25 years when tobacco is completely nicotine free, the only smokers left will be the ones who want to do it rather than those who can't quit.

I live next to Six Nations Native Reserve and a bag of cigarettes(200) have gone from $9 per bag to $22 over the last 3 months because of shortage of tabacco. OPP are cracking down on non natives leaving reserve and confiscating there smokes and fining them because they don't pay tax. There are so many smoke shops there.

Maybe pure tobacco with no chemicals, preservatives and other crud added by cigarette makers would be less likely to kill. I'm a non-smoker, always have been but as a kid remember tobacco smoke smelling much better than it did before "filters" appeared on cigarettes. Why was filter required after years of unfiltered cigarettes?? A placebo to ostensibly remove "impurities"?

Nicely done.

Good call. Maybe, if my idea for a short term solution was in place, yours for a long term solution would be that much more effective. Ying and yang baby. Let's join forces, combine our powers and change (perhaps take over) the world :)

Your killing me :)

It appears marijuana grow operators have another product to grow now that tobacco has become as lucrative as pot.

The reason e-cigarettes arent available in Canada is because of the solution that the nicotine is in for e-cigarettes.

That soultion contains sometimes more than 80% propylene gylcol, and I guarantee you dont want to be inhaling it. Its a solvent found in deodorants and is used mainly as a industrial chemical (such as a coolant and anti-freeze).

So think twice before turning to e-cigarettes, especially if you think its a safer way to smoke. The best solution for smokers (if you must smoke) is to smoke what you grow, then you know it has no chemical additives, and you'll be only inhaling whats naturally found in tobacco.

That was the most poorly written article I have read in a long time. The content was interesting, but lay off the lame one liners and puns.

Signed,
Not too bored to care.

No matter what, the Pigs in Ottawa will get the money out of you!! That's what Government in Canada does!

Well this writer makes it sound like its so easy to grow your own tobacco. Most will fail. Most will buy from the natives or other sources that deal in smuggled cigarettes which are cheap....tax free.

I am a smoker and would love to quit. If the government is so concerned about our health, why don't they make cigarettes illegal. Many law abiding citizens would not bother with them then, I know I wouldn't! Unfortunately, it's more about the tax dollars going into government coffers than about our health!

Shoot... I was wondering what propylene gylcol was. Thanks for the info.

I still refuse to believe there's no hope for the hopelessly addicted, or in the impossibility of a nicotine delivering 'smoke' that won't destroy your life somehow... I guess there's not enough $$ incentive to develop something like that, not for government anyways. I'm really starting to believe that the monetary based economic system frankly 'sucks' on every level... unless you're at the top of course.

Imagine, no cyanide, no arsenic, etc , etc. just tobacco.
Big tobacco and big Govt wont like this