Can I make my own cigarettes?

I roll my own fairly often. It costs $15-$20 per 200 to do that compared to $45 per 200 for Winstons. I use an assortment of pipe tobacco depending on my mood. I've also been know to smoke a pipe on occasion.

As far a growing for personal consumption, I don't know of any regulations against it. I looked into it a couple of years ago. The problem is, most good smoking tobacco is a blend of a bunch of different tobaccos grown all around the world. Not only does the plant make a difference, but the ground it's grown in, how it's dried, where it dried and how it's cut. If all you want is any old smoke, it's cheaper to burn leaves in the back yard. If you want the flavor of different blends then you need tobacco from all over the world.

In one of my past jobs, I had a delivery in a public high rise. The guy was pulling apart butts that he gathered from public ashtrays and the ground. He was dumping the "good tobacco" into a bowl so he could roll his own...

wbjones wrote:

Gearheadotaku wrote: not sure how a grow your own would work, but it seems like a good idea. If you can brew your beer and make your own wine.... then again you can't make your own hard liquor

you can ... just not for sale or as someone earlier said ... yes you can sell if you comply with all the regulations edit: beer baron beat me to it

Ahh, ok. learning a little more each day right?

RX Reven' wrote: …it just occurred to me that if we include “R” for rides and “S” for sex, we could rename the department FARTS as in the agency that farts all over everything men enjoy in life. Please accept my apology for hijacking this thread with sophomoric ramblings.

You wish that was up to sophomoric level!

Just don't mock the IRS, cause it's tax season you know.

Growing is probably the easy part. Drying, curing, and blending is where it will become a bitch and need the economy of scale.

I home brew, but I leave it to someone else to malt all the different barlies I use.

Maybe you could buy unblended tobacco wholesale and blend your own.

GAH I want a cigarette.

Beer Baron wrote: In California, you can not (legally) distill your own lard liquor. I think that is something controlled differently by different states. As I understand, it's not the alcohol itself that's the issue, it's the distilling thing. Done wrong, stills can explode. They can also produce alcohols besides ethanol that will do some bad things to you. I think there may also be the concern of distilling other controlled substances too. Edit: Actually... that can't be right. Stills aren't controlled here, just hard spirits. I've been to homebrew shops with nice, professional stills for sale, making it clear that they absolutely were not to be used for distilling spirits (wink wink). I'm guessing it's a health thing for if you do it wrong. Also, the best Gin I have *ever* had was some home distilled gin someone brought in to a homebrew shop to share.

Sounds like head shops were you use the big elaborate bongs for "tobacco"

z31maniac wrote:

Beer Baron wrote: In California, you can not (legally) distill your own lard liquor. I think that is something controlled differently by different states. As I understand, it's not the alcohol itself that's the issue, it's the distilling thing. Done wrong, stills can explode. They can also produce alcohols besides ethanol that will do some bad things to you. I think there may also be the concern of distilling other controlled substances too. Edit: Actually... that can't be right. Stills aren't controlled here, just hard spirits. I've been to homebrew shops with nice, professional stills for sale, making it clear that they absolutely were not to be used for distilling spirits (wink wink). I'm guessing it's a health thing for if you do it wrong. Also, the best Gin I have *ever* had was some home distilled gin someone brought in to a homebrew shop to share.

Sounds like head shops were you use the big elaborate bongs for "tobacco"

Even SAYING the word bong will get you kicked out of a head shop out here. It's a water pipe. And incense, not syn. pot. But it's legal like that. I've never smoked pot, legitimate or otherwise, but damned if some of that glasswork isn't impressive.

My father-in-law buys big bags of cigarette tobacco and rolls his own with a little machine. He buys the crap somewhere for cheap so... yeah. It never occurred to me that it wasn't legal but I suppose he could be meeting some russian dude in a dark alley to buy it.

Toyman01 wrote: I roll my own fairly often. It costs $15-$20 per 200 to do that compared to $45 per 200 for Winstons. I use an assortment of pipe tobacco depending on my mood. I've also been know to smoke a pipe on occasion.

I do not and have never smoked, $15 per 200 x 0 is the best deal.

I live right beside the rez. They're so cheap it's not worth rolling, let alone growing your own.

Hocrest wrote: In one of my past jobs, I had a delivery in a public high rise. The guy was pulling apart butts that he gathered from public ashtrays and the ground. He was dumping the "good tobacco" into a bowl so he could roll his own...

my homeless uncle did that during the summer that he was staying at our place... he'd get up in the morning and walk around looking for butts on the ground... he'd put all the unsmoked tobacco in a ziploc bag and the butts in a different bag that he'd throw away... he was there for about 4 months, and the town had a lot less litter and no butts laying around by the time he left..

novaderrik wrote:

Hocrest wrote: In one of my past jobs, I had a delivery in a public high rise. The guy was pulling apart butts that he gathered from public ashtrays and the ground. He was dumping the "good tobacco" into a bowl so he could roll his own...

my homeless uncle did that during the summer that he was staying at our place... he'd get up in the morning and walk around looking for butts on the ground... he'd put all the unsmoked tobacco in a ziploc bag and the butts in a different bag that he'd throw away... he was there for about 4 months, and the town had a lot less litter and no butts laying around by the time he left..

Zoofy da bum found that he could roll a cigar out of five cigar butts. After scrounging the bus station, one day, he collected 25 butts.

How many cigars could he smoke, from what he collected that day?

Having worked stripping tobacco, I can't imagine growing my own for personal consumption. Worse job ever. Even worse then cleaning out a hog barn that has been used for 4 years and has a fully feed silo.

Sometimes, lawmakers use the interstate commerce clause to justify federal regulation of whatever the heck they want. Actually being sold across state lines is not required. If making something for you own use influences your decision to buy or not buy something that might have been sold interstate ... or so their reasoning goes.

Or if something used in an activity was once sold in (or impacted) interstate commerce, they feel it's fair game to regulate the activity or items forever.

Some disagree.

logdog wrote:

Ian F wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: I but it occurred to me that liquor is regulated by the ATF and you are not allowed to make your own and sell it. Does the same hold true for tobacco?

You do know what "ATF" stands for, no?

Autotragic Transmission Fluid?

Aborigine Titty berkeley?

In reply to AngryCorvair:

Hey now, theres an aussie on the board.......

I think it's a good idea. I am now limited to making enough [canoes] for my own use, and I have a [automatic canoe maker] that is faster than [kayaks].  If you want to make your own [waves], it is better to use such gadgets.

Wow, a canoe and a REALLY OLD canoe all at the same time. 

You can make your own Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.   But you can't sell what you make  without an ATF license plus pay the excise tax.   

  Also there are limits on how many of each per  year you can make.  

I have talked to people who have made their own AR-15 from kits with machining of the rough lower receiver casting  being the part that is considered manufacturing by ATF.  But they can never sell what they made because it was not made under a federal license.    

Cigarette smuggling is big business because of the  huge difference in state tobacco taxes between states such as North Carolina and New York.