Amazing when Congress and smoking meets captalism and chemicals

Some of you may have heard about recent legislation Congress is working on. They are looking to outlaw artificial flavorings in tobacco products.

But the way they are wording it, apparently says something like, "You can't put anything in tobacco that doesn't grow on a tobacco plant".

Enter good old American capitalism. Did Congress actually think they could stop the tobacco industry from making money?

Turns out there are trace amounts of very potent chemicals in the tobacco flowers which can be extracted and used for flavorings. The flavors can be extracted directly from the tobacco flower, so they will be hard to legislate against.

My company does extractions.

Here's some of the flavors that can be found in the tobacco flower:

Eucalyptol, camphor, menthyl, strawberry, almond, mint fruit, pineapple, tomato, orange, pear, berry, cherry, grape, apple, spearmint, wintergreen, cherry nut, floral, rosy, melon, berry, ginger, fruit, cinnamon, berry cream, vanilla...

...then a couple of good ones like mutton, beef, and cheese.

But my favorite flavoring of all that can be derived from the tobacco flower is (drumroll, please)...

...CATFISH!

Real men will only smoke cigarettes that taste like mutton, beef, cheese, or catfish!

We will be processing 6 acres of flowers to extract about 182 grams of flavors. That's about the size of 2 snack sized bags of Cheetos.

And how much end product can you flavor (in the dish of your choice) with that much concentrated extract?

I happen to stumble across something yesterday that stated Congress (or maybe now the FDA) was considering banning menthol in cigarettes.

Cigarettes are the only substance I know of that are intentionally designed to be addictive. (heroin isn't, alcohol isn't, OK, maybe crystal meth)

Hopefully this law is going to force the tobacco industry to take out some of the nasty stuff they include to hook people. The tobacco plant itself isn't the entire problem.

What would be even nicer is if gov't stayed the berkeley out of it and let me decide the manner in which I choose to slowly kill myself. No one is forced to smoke.

I would love to try a cigarette that tastes like mutton, beef, or cheese mmmm. Or combo flavors like beef and cheese.

Ya know, I don't follow that. Extracting things from a tobacco plant has nothing to do with prohibiting the addition of extra chemicals to a cigarette.

What are you trying to put together?

poopshovel wrote: What would be even nicer is if gov't stayed the berkeley out of it and let me decide the manner in which I choose to slowly kill myself. No one is forced to smoke.

Agreed.

Some heads are gonna 'splode if this becomes a reality:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tobacco-plant-biomass-biofuel-genetic-modification

foxtrapper wrote: Ya know, I don't follow that. Extracting things from a tobacco plant has nothing to do with prohibiting the addition of extra chemicals to a cigarette. What are you trying to put together?

The point is that since they might not be able to put things into it other than what they can extract from the tobacco plant they are finding things that they can extract from the plant anyways. I think.

zomby woof wrote:

poopshovel wrote: What would be even nicer is if gov't stayed the berkeley out of it and let me decide the manner in which I choose to slowly kill myself. No one is forced to smoke.

Agreed.

+1 I don't need parental supervision.

SillyImportRacer wrote:

zomby woof wrote:

poopshovel wrote: What would be even nicer is if gov't stayed the berkeley out of it and let me decide the manner in which I choose to slowly kill myself. No one is forced to smoke.

Agreed.

+1 I don't need parental supervision.

If you are smoking then obviously you do!

In reply to carguy123:

Didn't you just trade vodka for a Jeep?

ya but which is considered the "problem" ? the Jeep or the vodka ?

If they are outlawing everything added, I hope they take the fire safe crap out while they are at it.

I shall now quote Boondock Saints 2. "I am so tired of this self-help 12 step left-over hippie generation bullsh*t. Now they don't want you to do anything. Just sit there. Don't drink, don't smoke, don't drive fast. Kiss my ass. berkeley it do it all I say."

Joe Gearin wrote: Cigarettes are the only substance I know of that are intentionally designed to be addictive.

Race fuel? I guess Miatas and R-compounds do not count as substances.

96DXCivic wrote: I shall now quote Boondock Saints 2. "I am so tired of this self-help 12 step left-over hippie generation bullsh*t. Now they don't want you to do anything. Just sit there. Don't drink, don't smoke, don't drive fast. Kiss my ass. berkeley it do it all I say."

I giggled when he said Duke Wayne died with five pounds of red meat in his ass.

They did what they were supposed to do. Compete or die. It is good stuff and I congratulate them for not sitting down and complaining about government rulings, getting on with things and finding something even more useful.

Sometimes ya gotta stop complaining and just get on with it.

poopshovel wrote: No one is forced to smoke.

Unless both of your parents chain smoked around you until you bailed at 18. I used to think smelling like an ashtray and burning eyes and throat were normal.

In reply to Appleseed:

"Normal" in these parts means knowing how to "hot-link" pics.

Sorry, my capitalist inner-self got the better of me..........

oldsaw wrote: Some heads are gonna 'splode if this becomes a reality: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tobacco-plant-biomass-biofuel-genetic-modification

ROFL! This North Carolina boy now wonders if he should go home and buy a farm.

I'm actually kind of feeling the "no additives" stuff, though. When I switched from Pall Mall (which I started because Marlboros were too expensive) to the various `Native American' microsmokes, there was a week or so where I still had "the itch", even though I just finished a cig.

Ahh smoking. One of the best things I ever quit.

Normal?

yum.