Grow your own tobacco for e-liquid... a pipe dream

[howiez]

I've been going through Canadian regulations regarding tobacco/nicotine/etc. and found something interesting.

As a Canadian, you can legally grow up to 15kg tobacco per adult 18+ living in your house. Say you have 3 adults in house, this is 45kg tobacco you could just grow in your back yard. Let's now say the nicotine is extracted from these tobacco leaves. I have no idea the numbers, but this seems like you would get a significant amount of nicotine from 45kg of tobacco. I believe this would be more then enough to get you through a year of vaping, considering the levels of nicotine currently in standard e-liquid.

I'm not suggesting people start extracting their own nicotine for e-liquid purposes, just dreaming a little. Could you imagine every e-cig user had a small crop of tobacco for personal use, and every harvest extracted their own nicotine to use with their e-cigs. No more border issues, no more shipping problems, just happy Canadians. I'd like to see trying to cut out the middle man of this operation. It seems silly to go elsewhere when Canada is a great place to grow tobacco to begin with. Purchasing from overseas seems counter-productive.

Any thoughts?

What about a local professional who simply extracted nicotine for a living. you bring your crops to him, return in a few days, you have your liquid nicotine. Kind of like a e-cig butcher?

Since I, as a Canadian am legally allowed to grow 15kg of my own tobacco, would it not make sense that I am legally allowed to grow/own/obtain the equal amount of liquid nicotine? Does the transfer from tobacco to nicotine change/alter the rules? I'm just throwing things out to start perhaps an interesting discussion.

 

[cactusgirl]

In order to answer your question I suppose we would first need to investigate and learn more about the process(es) involved in extracting nicotine from the tobacco plant. Also, what safeguards would need to be put in place to ensure that the end product is consumable.

Very interesting (and innovative) concept for sure!

 

[smokum]

Ahhh the dreamers, lol.....

I think you'll end up finding that regulations change when considering extracts (a concentrate), that are deemed a restricted poison. Not to mention the investment that would most likely be required to both process and handle such a substance, as well as the testing equipment (a spectrum anylizer I believe) to decifer the strength and purity), necessary to do it.

I also do not believe we have a workable climate to allow a proper finish and harvest of most tobacco strains (let alone the time or place involved in the curing process).

Plus there's a already a whole industry in place for this, who have billions of dollars invested who are supporting lobbyists to government & their organizations to quite easily sqwash any efforts to infringe on their business ventures.

If it came down to a total ban..... sure I'd be looking into it more deeply (even if for my own interest and use), but for now.... I stick with something safely and properly processed to know the strengths of nic I'm exposed to.

But ya, nice to dream......

 

[howiez]

I guess the thing that gets me is this: I am allowed to have 15kg tobacco products growing in my back yard 'for personal use', but cannot order 10ml bottle of 8mg/ml nicotine for the same reason. Sure logistically its a nightmare, extracting, poisons, evaluating nicotine strength, etc.

I think of it like this. I can have a cow in my back yard, and drink all the milk from my cow. But damned if they are going to let my buy 2% pasteurized milk from anywhere else!

 

[Can_supplier]

Your 1st problem is trying to extract the nicotine. There have been many posts and attempts at trying to do that from tobacco. There has not been much success, with the result being swamp water that smells and tastes that an ashtray that has been out in the rain.

You might also want to do the math of how much nicotine is in 15kg of tobacco, I would suspect it is very little. I have a feeling they are using a ton of it over in China to produce nicotine. It just doesn't matter over there because tobacco is dirt cheap.

As for growing, southern Ontario is a great place to grow tobacco. In Delhi around London in southern Ontario, that area was HUGE for tobacco back in the day. It became a very rich area where the farmers kids were driving new sports cars to school as the norm.

 

[Kams Cats]

Ahhh the dreamers, lol.....


I also do not believe we have a workable climate to allow a proper finish and harvest of most tobacco strains (let alone the time or place involved in the curing process).

I remember the tobacco fields around us. The curing sheds with the racks for all the leaves. It grows best in Southwestern Ontario.

I guess if this is going to be a hobby some people "could" really go all out. not me. LOL

 

[tmac1981]

i do not think i would like to try home brew nicotine

 

[Switched]

I guess the thing that gets me is this: I am allowed to have 15kg tobacco products growing in my back yard 'for personal use', but cannot order 10ml bottle of 8mg/ml nicotine for the same reason. Sure logistically its a nightmare, extracting, poisons, evaluating nicotine strength, etc.

I think of it like this. I can have a cow in my back yard, and drink all the milk from my cow. But damned if they are going to let my buy 2% pasteurized milk from anywhere else!

Unless you are in the country with the proper acreage to support a cow, you can't keep a cow in your back yard. The animal has rights too.

 

[Switched]

i do not think i would like to try home brew nicotine

That was TAR extraction not nicotine. Please read the disclaimer (in green) at beginning of video.

 

[tmac1981]

That was TAR extraction not nicotine. Please read the disclaimer (in green) at beginning of video.

i am sure if you soak it or burn it the results will be about the same with out and lab and proper equipment and knowledge to filter and separate the chemicals and test strengths you will most likely end up with a nasty dangers product.
kind of like moonshine if you do it right it is good do it wrong and people die

 

[Lil-Stewie]

They still grow tobacco on the outskirts of London, have driven past huge fields of it on Carriage Rd on my way out to the reservation to pick up my monthly supply of analogs. Often wondered how many plants it would take to make up a carton.

.

 

[Can_supplier]

i do not think i would like to try home brew nicotine

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier to do the math, from the information on the side of the pack? XXmg of tar * y cigarettes = Z mg?? I think we can all figure out what a mg of tar is. LOL

Ironically if you boiled sugar and water like that you would be left with a similar mess of black stuff. Does that mean it’s bad too?

Considering in my life, and I’m sure the same with all of you, I’ve smoked 1,000 times the cigarettes used there, and I’m not a walking glob of tar, I’d suggest that experiment is irrelevant.

Even being a non-smoker now, crap like that still irks me.. Just like smoking with stunt your growth.. I think there is enough bad to say about smoking without insulting anyone’s intelligence.

 

[tmac1981]

i think the guy who made this did a good job of showing a example of what tar looks like. 18 mg or 1 mg of tar is hard to imagine this video give a example of how much it is .

 

[breakfast]

Wouldn't it just be a whole lot easier to do the math, from the information on the side of the pack? XXmg of tar * y cigarettes = Z mg?? I think we can all figure out what a mg of tar is. LOL

Ironically if you boiled sugar and water like that you would be left with a similar mess of black stuff. Does that mean it’s bad too?

Considering in my life, and I’m sure the same with all of you, I’ve smoked 1,000 times the cigarettes used there, and I’m not a walking glob of tar, I’d suggest that experiment is irrelevant.

Even being a non-smoker now, crap like that still irks me.. Just like smoking with stunt your growth.. I think there is enough bad to say about smoking without insulting anyone’s intelligence.

Yeah it's easy to figure out how much is in a pack, carton or X amount of smokes but it's hard to visualize, like tmac1981 said.

With regard to the sugar comment... I sure hope you don't smoke sugar because you'd be left with a whole lot of carbon in your lungs! You have to keep in mind the intended function of something, too!

The reason you're not a walking glob of tar is because your body metabolizes all of that tar you put in your lungs. If your body didn't process it... you WOULD be that glob of tar!!

 

[AlbertaClipper]

Just like smoking with stunt your growth..

OH I wondered why I'm only 4'11".

 

[lelly]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/liquid-extraction-tobacco/

There is a whole subforum on this subject. I don't know if I would ever to be bothered to try it, half the stuff I plant in my garden doesn't grow, I don't imagine a tobacco plant being any better

 

[Switched]

Well reading up on TWA extraction, not being a chemist I wouldn't even buy the stuff to do it. I believe that smoking would be safer.