It’s hard to know, at first, whether a bill like this is a “juicer” bill, a help-my-big-corporate-donor bill or just stupidity. I always lean toward the first until proven otherwise, so that’s going to be my take at the moment. I won’t accept stupidity as an answer unless they prove it to me. What does strike me as humorous though, is all of the outcry in the blogosphere about this bill. People are just simply going crazy about it. But you can tell that they probably could care less about the two thousand other industries that are being just as taxed. People always get up in arms when government comes knocking on their door, but don’t seem to care when he knocks on the neighbor’s.

The justification for the bill goes as follows:

Mr. Obama and Congress increased taxes on tobacco products earlier this year…but tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes saw a disproportionate leap, from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound.

But tobacco companies quickly adapted. The Associated Press found that as soon as the tax was on the books, companies all but shut down their roll-your-own brands and reinvented them under a less-restricted, less-taxed category: pipe tobacco. It’s still destined to be rolled and smoked, but it’s taxed at barely a tenth the rate, $2.83 per pound.

The tax implications could be huge. As much as $32 million a month could be lost in taxes if the sudden spike in pipe tobacco is just cigarette tobacco in disguise.

–AP

So, the AP estimates that the government is losing $32 million per month on tobacco taxes as a result of pipe tobacco being taxed at the lower rate. This is the “loophole.” But, surely by now we all know that it’s never that easy. Increasing the tax on pipe tobacco up to parity with other tobaccos will decimate that industry, such that the realized tax revenue will be nowhere near $32 million. They’ll be lucky to get half of that. And, everyone involved knows this. If you are thinking something along the lines of “don’t they realize what it will do to X industry?!” Of course they do. Don’t kid yourself by pretending that politicians are ignorant of the consequences of proposed legislation. Don’t be this guy:

“Many times our government passes things without first taking an extra few days to say, ‘What are the unintended consequences?”‘ Altman said. “That’s what happened here.”

–AP

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that government policies are targeted, fully thought out and all of the consequences are intended. I’m not saying that at all. But, specific legislation such as this is always targeted toward producing a particular result. In this case, the most logical intent of the bill is probably the same as it always is: to either put smaller competition out of business or just “juice” the industry for campaign donations. It’s almost always one of those two things.

The bottom line when analyzing a proposed bill that would potentially decimate a certain industry is to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s unintended. No, no. It’s always intentional. Someone is benefiting from it. You just have to find out who.

First, start by taking a large clump of tobacco in your fingers like you would if you were grabbing some Red Man chewing tobacco. Next, rock it slightly back and forth in your fingers with some firm pressure to get the whole thing to clump up and kind of stick together. Once you have a decent ball of tobacco, press it down into the top of the bowl, giving it a slight twist as you push it in. Once it won’t go any further just stop and pluck off any tobacco sticking out of the top. You don’t want it to be too tight and prevent air flow.

This method has a number of benefits. The first is that by not filling the bowl completely it makes it easier to draw. Also, any moisture that collects in the bottom of the bowl (i.e. the gurgles) can be swabbed out by just pushing a pipe cleaner through the stem during your smoke. The air pocket leaves plenty of room for this. Lastly, if you pack it correctly, as you get toward the end of your smoke you can just push the whole clump to the bottom of the bowl and give it a few tamps and finish up the entire thing. This gets some cake development on the bottom of the bowl as well.

I managed to get my hands on some last week and got to smoke it for the first time last night. It was a very pleasant smoke. The nicotine content was definitely high so you don’t want to smoke it on an empty stomach if you are sensitive to nicotine as I am. I just peeled it apart and cut it up with kitchen shears into small bits. This seemed to work fine though I’m not sure if it’s the proper way to do it or not. Here are a couple of pics:

You can get some twist for yourself at SmokingPipes.com.

And here’s the review of the above tobacco at TobaccoReviews.com.

Everyone seems to enjoy the room note it leaves when I smoke this. I get more comments about it than I do with any other blend I smoke. It’s a dark blend, which are my favorites, that blends Latakia, Oriental and Turkish leaves together for a very mild but sweet taste. It stays lit very easily through every tin I’ve had so far. The only real exception I can give is if you smoke it while the tabacco is warm, such as after it’s been in the car all day. It tastes bad at that point, but most tobacco will radically change flavor in that environment anyway. All in all it’s a great tobacco, and one you should definitely buy as soon as you can.

• Here is it’s review on Tobaccoreviews.com
• You can buy it online here

I found that it lit easily and stayed lit without much trouble. It did smoke a little wet toward the end of the bowl, but a little air curing should fix that the next time around. The flavor was dark as expected with hints of that smokiness I mentioned earlier. There was also a very suttle spice type undertone that added another interesting element. Overall this is a very nice, complex blend and I’ll keep some on hand in the future. If you like latakia blends then you should really try this one out.

• Here is it’s review on Tobaccoreviews.com
• You can buy it online here

You can buy this pipe here.

Since the start of my foray into tinned tobaccos, I’ve noticed that I enjoy the darker flavors of Balkan, Basma, Latakia, etc. much more than Virginian blends. The Virginians just seem to cigarettish for my taste. Maybe I just haven’t tried the right one yet, but I really do lean more toward the darks and orientals. If that is true of you as well then I think you would really like Frog Morton on the Bayou. Mine smoked a little wet at first, but since the can has been unsealed for a while it is drying out nicely. The smoke is just heavy enough to linger. Most importantly my wife gave it’s smell the nod of approval. She said it smelled better to her than “on the Town” did.

• Here is it’s review on Tobaccoreviews.com
• You can buy it online here

The flavor was nice but very mild. It was hard to pick out any individual flavors as standouts. The smoke was not real heavy either. Skip Elliot over at The Briary said that it was a good tobacco for someone just making a foray into non-aromatic blends. I’m assuming the mildness(almost to the point of being bland) is the reason for that. It was definitely better than Presbyterian Mix, which was the first tinned tobacco I ever tried. I think I am going to like it but at this point I don’t see it becoming a favorite just because of the mildness. I’ll post an update later when I have a chance to smoke some more of it. I’m dedicating a pipe to it so my opinion might change as the pipe gets seasoned with it.

• Here is it’s review on Tobaccoreviews.com

You can buy this pipe here.