By fixing it’s RYO tobacco tax rate, a state can prevent any revenue loss from smokers switching from regular cigarettes to RYO, while also making the RYO products much less attractive and accessible to youths.”

RYO is a centuries old industry in no need of a bailout, so this is what their “fix” actually means:

By manipulating and raising it’s reasonable and traditional RYO tax rates, a state can assure maximum gouging of it’s citezens through prejudicial taxes on affordable RYO “kit products”  to keep their smokers addicted to “regular cigarettes”  (the ones that were previously established in US courts as specifically engineered for high consumption) therefore making the RYO kit products unaffordable  (eventually unavailable to everyone) in the future and ensuring a reliable and continuing revenue stream.

In a nutshell, RYO was too affordable and not generating enough money for the government and these worthless special interest groups.   Keep in mind, the farmer sells a pound of cured cigarette tobacco for around $2, by the time the consumer is able to purchase the tobacco the price will now shoot up to around $45lb (was about $15.00 pre-S-CHIP)!  The lionshare of the remaining $43 is taxes and MSA, by lionshare we’re talking over $30!   Smoke em if you got em, after all….it’s for someone elses kids!

Check out their site, it’s full of great ideas!  I guess cigars have been broken all along, I see that they’ve already figured out how to “fix” them too.   Hopefully liquor bottles (by the shot glass I presume) will be next, and who knows, chips by the chip and sodas by the sip.   I’ve read of something so udderly ridiculous as to tax cows by the fart, maybe we’ll be next.   That would be simple with modern technology I imagine, just shove a microchip where the sun don’t shine and start counting the revenue!   Why not, it’s for the children.  Maybe the children should be allowed all the farts they can rip out till they’re 18, at least let em get that old before they go insane.  Can we do it?

Pipe tobacco is where the similarity and hopeful panacea to RYOers lie except for the fact that casings and toppings are prevalent in some of the blends.  That is correct sir, us RYOers are wondering if pipe tobacco was of the quality for us lowly cigarette smokers!  No disparagement meant to the fine art of pipe smoking as I enjoy the occassional bowl myself.  However, keep the importance of inhalation when smoking cigarettes in mind and the fact that a portion of RYOers are already weary of smoking packaged cigarettes due to the toppings, chemicals and now especially; FSC treatments.  We want clean, inhalable smoke, however contradictory that might sound to the anti and casual observer.   To summarize, the truth of RYO is twofold, those who roll for the savings and those who roll to avoid the certain death in a package, appreciate a quality tobacco product and of course the savings.

For comparison, traditional English pipe tobacco and cigarette tobacco alike is additive free and therefore; English.  Akin to the Reinheitsgbot, the German “act of purity in brewing” the English long ago demanded only the cleanest and honest crafting of smoking materials.  While that tradition is somewhat bastardized in modern times, English tobacco as a whole, both pipe and cigarette, will be some of the “cleanest” available.  This is what us RYOers and pipesters alike are in search of, not so much the traditional English recipes as most RYOers wouldn’t know Latakia from a lung biscuit.  What about the pH of pipe tobacco though, surely it’s not designed to inhale, much the same as cigars, or is it?  In fact, this varies so much according to blend that generalizations are suspect as usual.  A typical pipe blend can in fact have a quite low pH, or high acidity, which is ideal for lung absorption of nicotine as opposed to the higher pH of a typical cigar.  This is just a theory I’ve heard and evidently it doesn’t hold water, some pipe tobaccos can make for fine inhaling,  and quite a few will stuff and/or roll up to make a nice portable smoke!   The writings on the wall fellas, I can only hope we’re welcomed with open arms.  I wonder how GLP will stuff in a tube though, haven’t tried that one yet.  <cough>pipesmokerswincing</cough>

It’s a funny thing that more cigarette smokers haven’t considered this possibility, until now that is.  A matter of fact is that many tinned and pouched tobaccos have historically been sold as “smoking tobaccos” and even packaged with papers!  Hopefully these same blends still available today won’t now be subject to the surrealistic S-CHIP taxation plan, due to this fact,  as many more that are labeled solely as pipe tobaccos are just as suitable.  I’m currently enjoying a McC 2015 as I type, in a tube no less.  The secret is in the drying.  I don’t think this will catch on though because even RYOers like convenience and hour+ drying times add another hassle to the already arduous process of Rolling Your Own sticks, as some find it.   See you in the pipe forums!

Here’s an easy to use reference showing the current federal tax on assorted commercial tobacco products, the new S-CHIP effects, and the overall percentage increase.  The chart helps illustrate the unbalanced taxation schedule for various tobacco products.  A quick study will show the discrepency between one form of tobacco and all the rest as being singularily picked for an exhorbitant and especially brutal tax.  The RYO tax increase shown is NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE NOR A TYPO!

Exactly why the RYO tobacco industry and it’s consumers are expected to bear the brunt of the S-CHIP’s proposed tax increase has yet to be made clear.  Several RYO manufacturers have already announced their intentions to close effective March 31st,  2009.  How any remaining companies plan to bear such a dramatic and uneven tax is a mystery.  The secretive way in which the bill was passed and it’s effects ingnored by the media leaves many RYO users in the dark.  Many won’t realize the effects of the bill until April 1st when attempting to purchase tobacco.

SCHIP Tobacco Tax Rate Increases | RYO Revolution