# Legal Tobacco? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 1, 1999, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640 "1999-12-01T17:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/1 "1999-12-01T17:14:00Z")
I hear the tobacco companies are fighting the classification of tobacco as a drug. It would then be banned, they say. I agree that it would be absurd to make tobacco illegal, just as it would be absurd to make alcohol illegal. Likewise, it is absurd for less dangerous drugs like marijuana to be illegal. ---
**Author:** ![keystream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a3d4f5/32.png) [@keystream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keystream)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/2 "1999-12-01T17:17:00Z")
Amen, TennHippie! ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/3 "1999-12-01T17:44:00Z")
Speaking of legal tobacco, is it legal to grow it for personal use? Or does the government regulate it somehow? * * * **Dopeler effect:** The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 1999, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/4 "1999-12-02T06:02:00Z")
I don’t think tobacco growing is regulated much. My grandmother lived in the Southern Indian/Northern Kentucky area and many people we knew had a small patch for personal use. I also did a search, out of curiosity, and there seem to be several sites that sell tobacco seeds, etc. ---
**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 1999, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/5 "1999-12-02T06:20:00Z")
UncaBeer from [www.atf.treas.gov/core/tobacco/permits/permits.htm](http://www.atf.treas.gov/core/tobacco/permits/permits.htm) Permits or bonds are required for the following activities: Any person who manufactures cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, snuff, pipe tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco except for that person’s own consumption or use. actual regulations are at: [http://www.atf.treas.gov/core/regulations/27cfr270.htm](http://www.atf.treas.gov/core/regulations/27cfr270.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 1999, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/6 "1999-12-01T21:06:00Z")
From a report I heard on NPR I think the issue of regulation of tobacco as a drug is that FDA would have to ban it outright by definition. There is no known theraputic use and it cannot be be classified as “safe and effective.” ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 1999, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/7 "1999-12-02T08:00:00Z")
Perhaps it could find use a a drug to treat nicotine addiction. Wait! Isn’t that it’s primary use now? ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 1999, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/8 "1999-12-02T08:08:00Z")
I’ve found cigarettes quite helpful in kicking my nicotene gum addiction. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 1999, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/9 "1999-12-02T11:11:00Z")
Thank you Cher and Starfish. The BATF, duh. Now why didn’t I think of looking there. * * * **Dopeler effect:** The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. ---
**Author:** ![J\_String](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@J\_String](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_String)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 1999, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/10 "1999-12-03T06:42:00Z")
Padeye is pretty much on target. The tobacco companies are playing a game of chicken with this one. According to the tobacco industry’s brief, if the FDA could regulate tobacco products as a drug, cigarettes would have to be banned due to the agency’s “failure to find that tobacco products are effective and safe for any intended use.” In reality, a ban would never take effect. It’s politically unpopular, and it would take a big bite out of tax revenues legislators need for their pet projects. Cigarette taxes are crack for politicians. * * * It’s a long way to heaven, but only three short steps to hell. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 1999, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/11 "1999-12-02T19:41:00Z")
Why should they make something that keeps the population growth down illegal? And it is such a pleasant way to die too. I believe if people could feel how much it hurts holding your own parent or loved one in your arms as they die, or how hard it is to comfort them as they hallucinate from the lack of oxygen to their systems when the lung cancer finally takes over that there would be no need to have legal input. As long as people feel it will never happen to them (my mother’s own words), they will continue to smoke. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss you Mom. I wish you had lived long enough to see my talent as an artist. * * * “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good things.” --Edgar Degas ---
**Author:** ![RoboDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@RoboDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoboDude)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 1999, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-tobacco/11640/12 "1999-12-03T01:00:00Z")
* * * ## In reality, a ban would never take effect. It’s politically unpopular, and it would take a big bite out of tax revenues legislators need for their pet projects. Cigarette taxes are crack for politicians. We’d also have one more drug to on which to throw away perfectly good police resources in our futile efforts to eradicate it.