Coalition Of Gay Vietnam Veterans

Because of the idiotic fight to raise the cost of tobacco products lead by the Speaker Of The House Robbie Wills and signed into law by the equally idiotic Governor Mike Beebe, I’m thinking about growing my own tobacco.  No not the Wildwood Flower variety but the legal over the counter type tobacco that you can buy in the store and/or through the mail, and thereby circumventing the retail price and tax on it altogether.

I’ve done some research about it on the web and found some places that sell tobacco seeds and it doesn’t violate any Federal or State laws.  This was nothing more than greedy politicians targeting a selected group to bleed as much money from the old cash cow, while the bleeding is good.  It would do my heart glad if tobacco users were to march on the Capitol and dumped tons and tons of tobacco at the Capitol doors and all over the lawn, in protests of the obsessive and outrageous cost of tobacco products now being charged.

A lousy 6 oz bag of Midnight Special that used to cost me around 7 to ten dollars now cost around 35.00 dollars per 6 oz bag.  After researching how to grow tobacco on the Internet it seems I’m not alone in the idea of growing my own, so with that in mind I emailed the Arkansas State Plant Board about the legality of growing tobacco for personal use.  The following in its entirety is what I was advised by the Arkansas State Plant Board

 Mr. *******: There are no regulations against growing tobacco in Arkansas.  I would suggest you buy your seed from a reputable source since the seed are usually pretty expensive.  If you purchase your seed from a local retail store, there would be no regulatory issues to address.  If you are purchasing seedlings and they are being shipped from outside the state, the seedlings would need to be free of soil before entering the state.  This can be accomplished by the seedlings being bare root and washed free of soil or the seedlings could have been produced in a commercially prepared soil-less medium (ie jiffy pots) and this would be satisfactory. Please feel free to get in touch if I can provide additional information. Terry WalkerDirector, Plant Industry DivisionArkansas State Plant Board#1 Natural Resources Dr.Little Rock, AR 72205 501-225-1598 (phone)501-225-3590 (fax)terry.walker@aspb.ar.gov

Upon further research I found that I could even grow them in an apartment or in the home, as tobacco plants are easy to grow and after the initial first seed plants will continue to produce tobacco after the stalks have been harvested.  Insects are not a problem as the sphinx moth, hawk moth or tobacco worm is the only real pest that I will have to look out for, and is a cousin to the tomato worm if you don’t want to touch them use gloves or pliers.  One site I researched stated the water used to soak the tobacco stalks in could then be used to spray on the new tobacco plants as an insect repellent. I’ve already found sites on the Internet that sell tobacco seeds at a reasonably good cost.  You can even grow tobacco as an ornamental plant in your garden, so its back to the old row tiller, shovel and garden if I want to keep me old smoke stack going strong.

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