A PESTILENCE UPON THIS LAND

From a tobacco perspective the past week has been educational. Rumours, so far not confirmed, indicate that a much beloved company may soon be no more. McClelland Tobacco, founded by Mike and Mary McNeil over forty years ago, is apparently reducing production OR closing, due to a number of factors, none of them financial. The scarcity of Red Virginia which is up to their standards is one thing, the almost complete absence now and for the foreseeable future of Syrian Latakia is another, the FDA being a blister about tobacco a third, and the government paying farmers to not grow the one crop that made the colonies profitable comes fourth. And there's more.
Plus Mike and Mary have been doing this for over a generation.
It's time to enjoy the fruits of their labours.
Now is as good a time as any.


Roger: "Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land. Nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history."


Any substitutions, of course, mean that the blend(s) in question could not be "grandfathered in". It would be a new product, subject to the entire shitcan of punitive measures meant to cripple the tobacco trade.

What the McNeils have reportedly indicated to a number of people in the industry is that despite present circumstances they will continue, albeit with a much more limited palette of products. That likely means that many of the blends that you enjoy will NOT be made, nor likely ever made again.

Other sources state, however, that they are shutting down.
Permanently. Completely. Entirely.


*      *      *      *      *


Many of us have a stash to last us quite a while, but we want more; with the disappearance of so many fine blends and companies over the past quarter of a century, each new loss spurs us to further acquisition, and makes us despise the long cold claw of the anti-tobacco fiends worse.


Smokers of aromatics are unconcerned at present; their tawdry pleasures seem safe, sofar, and there will always be commercial whores spritzing candy essences on worse-than-mediocre leaf. But even they should worry, as San Francisco and other "progressive" municipalities have decided that flavoured tobacco products target children, minorities, and the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans and Queer community, and must be banned.
Which is probably the wave of the future.

That, and higher taxes.



THE PROTECTED CLASS.

Eventually the only ones left may be the big business manufacturers of cigarettes. Who will always thrive. Because that's the American way.
People will smoke. Even if they have to sell the baby.
And smuggle it in from other states.
Like New Jersey.



PS.: The next meeting of the pipe club is coming up. We will be planning revolution and putting together lists of politicians, lobbyists, and health care professionals. Praise Baby Jesus assault rifles, errm, "hunting tools" are still legal, and likely to be so for years to come.

Come on over to the dark side.
We have wine and cheese.
And hug dolphins.




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