How to Grow Tobacco

I live in OZ, from an outsiders perspective the laws for things like growing Tobacco seem extreme. But they really only pertain to black market trade in commercial quantities. The problem in Australia is we tend not to petition lawmakers to write clauses for personal use etc. So officially its very serious "crime" but put to practice as long as there aren't hectares of tobacco fields behind your house, the police aren't particularly interested, they seem to be fairly under resourced and busy with real crime. If on the odd chance they were to come around regarding tobacco plants I doubt most would no what they were looking at or for and I would think they themselves would be unsure of the exact legislation. Infact to save paperwork they might just tell you to pull them out and put them in the bin. Its just how Australia is.

for your interest Nicotianna altana and sylverstii (spelling) are the only two legal Nicotiannas officially allowed to grow in Australia there are also some wild species that just are. but like I said without a flower I don't think they have police with botanical degrees.

Fascistic fucking monopolists! Jail for growing a plant? What the hell is going on this world?

Hello All,
After having met my local member of parliament as to getting this law changed. that was wishful thinking on my part. He said that I have to get a licenses.
We are coming up to an election here so if they want our vote they need to do something.
the ATO are not going to give out licenses real quick. All Australian here to tell the member to change the law.
We need to see a exemption in the law for home growers/personal users.

Remember cannabis is illegal most states of Australia, yet there are a lot of people growing it in they homes.
In my area the police have given up on busting them.

Cannabis is a plant. It keeps the jails full here. Also supports a lot of the government.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinod ... ry=tobacco
u also cant have tobacco with more than 30% moisture O.o

this layout is extremely comfusing...

EDIT: theres also this:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/ ... 0/s68.html

OK, this needs an update, as the laws are always in flux.

What you have to look at is not only the " letter of the law", BUT also the "spirit of the legislation". Its this second part that most overlook in any discussion of the law. This "intent " of the law is what is argued in court, and it will cite references from parliament, common law, and even what is said by politicans.

So lets looks at this.

The "letter of the law is clear", and from the Australian Taxation Office website it says clearly

" Growing tobacco for personal or commercial use
___________________________________________________________________________
You must hold an excise licence to grow tobacco for personal or commercial use in Australia. It is illegal to do so without an excise licence. Licences to grow tobacco in Australia are rarely granted. There are no current licences for personal or commercial tobacco growing in Australia."
___________________________________________________________________________

Now understand as a Govt Department they will say this. They will tell you the exact wording of the law. Any Govt department around the world WILL NOT tell you any other interpretation of the law. The law is written like this.

So lets now look at the "Spirit of the legislation"

The legislation is specially under the Excise Act. The Govt is not banning it as a prohibited plant, nor an evasive species. The legislation is designed quite specially to account for Govt revenue. So one wonders why under the excise act the Govt doesn't crack down on all the home distillation of alcohol, and bio-fuels. All these are also illegal according to the excise act.

That's because the recently they clarified the legislation as to what the excise act applies to. The spirit of the act is to target " commercial use"

The recent addition to the Excise act.

" [Schedule 1, item 75, section 77J]

2.28 The licensing provisions of the Act are directed towards controlling commercial operations. It would not be consistent with those controls to grant a licence for the production of excisable goods for personal use. In particular, commercial operations would not include home growing of tobacco, home distillation of spirit or small scale production of biodiesel for personal use."

So the Govt is only activitly persuing commercial use. They wont grant licences for home use, in otherwords they don't consider home use as part of the excise act and its enforcement.

This is why home distillers are not persued.

So bottom line.

Its clear that as long as you don't grow tobacco in commercial quanities, and/or sell tobacco, you will be ignored by the authorities.

That's the current state of the law in Australia.

Thank you Craftbrewer, for doing the research and identifying that refinement of the commercial law as it exists down under.
Indeed, many chaps have expressed concern.
There should be no problem with someone growing a sufficient amount for their personal, household use, for 2 or 3 years supply, so they would not need to be concerned with it each year... from where I sit !
YMMV
rc

If you want to put it another way. (and this will apply to many other countries as well with their laws)

The Excise Act was put in place on what to tax, what you have to do to get a licence and how to collect it.
THEN amendments are made to any exemptions over time.

So with Tobacco the original Excise Act said everyone needs to be licenced and pay excise, then an amendment came in saying home use doesn't need licencing or paying excise.

Rather simple.

The trouble with tobacco it has a very powerful lobby group. This group petitions government to keep their monopoly secure. With the huge taxes on tobacco in Aus chop chop has become a viable criminal prospect and the lobby groups under the guise of public safety push for very heavy penalties. Hopefully private growers are not caught up in this push for "justice".

On the distilling front, in WA you are allowed to distill if its for personal use. That also means not supplying anyone else with alcohol free or otherwise. Health/ food laws sited here I think. So if ever caught with tobacco plants don't even hint that you even give it away, as with pot you could get done with supply and distribution.

Cheers

It's a bloody shame when there are so many people minding the business of others.
rc

Welcome to Oz where "mind your own business" is and Australian tax office private business PC program