swedish tobacco aka snus how you can give up smoking!

red_ice

first of all let me clarify this. Snus is used in sweden like we smoke ciggaretes, but it got me off smokes... untill i was stupid to have one for the fun of it! It is not innitially a method of giving up smoking, but i found it effective.

At the age of 16 i went to sweden to train at an ice hockey camp. During my time in sweden at the camp i wasnt allowed to smoke, i was told to use snus as a substitute (but not on ice!)

snus is a tobacco that is placed under the lip and tobacco drips with the addition of saliva onto your toung via your teeth.. Its 100% safe and there are absolutly no side effects.. other than a wearing on the gum upwards beside your nose, but that takes YEARS of snusing... Its virtually the most safe drug on the planet. Its 100% legal and you have to be 18 to use it in sweden.... but its only sold in sweden and denmark(afaik)

With some doubts in my mind, and absolutly GUMMIN for a smoke i decided to try snus. At first it tasted horrible, burned my throat, and was really really salty! I threw it out after about a minute, but for some reason unknown, prolly coz i was that desperate for a smoke, i put another in 5 minutes later and it tasted alright..

So i started to 'snus' alot in camp and i grew to addore the taste. Its great, i cant say its salty anymore, its just lovely, it doesnt burn my throat or anything, it was just right - much better than smoking and alot safer

My 2 weeks of hockey camp came to an end, but i made sure i would stock up on snus for when i got home. After 4 months my snus ran out, and i didnt have a ciggie since the first day of hockey camp! Absolutly great!

A month after i ran out of snus, i decided to have a smoke 'for old time sake'... big mistake! Been smoking ever since...

Today.. i found a box of snus with 2 sachés left, all dried out. I ran it under the tap and threw it under my lip. It felt sooo good. The average snus lasts for about 2 hours (i think) and i had that one in for 4. Didnt even look at a smoke or even think about having one! i didnt have any mild headaches or anything that i get when i smoke. Its just the ultimate substitute for smoking and it cures all needs/wants to smoke... but it makes you look like you have a fat upper lip ;p but that goes away after 5 minutes..

I myself cant find it in any of the tobacconists in ireland, i tried when i ran out of it but i couldnt find it. How would i be able to get some?

I was just wondering does anyone on these boards use or have used snus? What did you think of it? And how do you get it?

Jeez, i sound like a gear addict... but if you smoke and you dont want to smoke + you have crap will power to give up you would understand where im coming from!

If you have any incklings about it check this site out, it has all the facts on snus with regards to health and what not!

reD.

Duffman

And the black goo dripping down your stained front teeth is soooo attractive..

I have a few Swedish friends who use it and they admit that it's harmful to your gums..

cartman

is it cheap?? i want some i really want to give up the fags but have no will power.. would it cost alot loike.. when u ran out of it did u have a craving for a fag after it? like a few weeks later or was the whole nicotine craving gone???

thanks,
cartman

let me know if u find it

koneko

Snus is so horrible though. Just remember that if you take up that habit, no girlee is going to want to go anywhere near you. Seeing someone smile with that brown gunk on their teeth is a definite turn-off (plus it smells).

damnyanks

Was on holidays and met up with a load of Swedes. A few used it etc. They said that it can cause cancer of the throat or something like that (Cant remember where exactly I had taken a few refreshing drinks). But they were pretty loud about it causing cancer of some sort someplace in your skull

RE*AC*TOR

kinda reminds me of snuff. Similar idea i'd say - oral/nasal cavity + tobacco = good time + the added effect of being a woman repellant.

Stephen

My ould lad uses it to keep himself off the fags, he gets a friend in norway to send some over every few months. He's back on the fags now though.

Third_Echelon

i was talking to a swede at the weekend there and he used it as a replacement for the fags... he thought it was a great way to get off them...

you have to ween yourself of the snus though.. it does look pretty gross....

leonotron

Friend of mine came back from sweden with some, smells like old sweaty socks, no way I was putting it in my mouth.

red_ice

rofl, you lads are right in some areas.. but you havnt read the site.

There is damage caused, but its 100% reverseable. The gunk your talking about is the type of snus that i didnt go near, its just a lil stronger than the packed 'tea bag' snus

Packed snus costs the same as 10 smokes and you get 24 of them in it. It is by no means a nice habbet, but its 10x better than smoking.

The reason your swedish friends have staines teeth if probably becasue they dont wash their teeth.

dr strangelove

but aren't you just moving from one form of addiction to another? it's all nicotine, right?

QBall

Thanks to here I found out that snus == snuff as I suspected (and as RE*AC*TOR mentioned). A bit of Googling revealed that there are two types of snuff, nasal (dry) and oral (moist). Nasal snuff is the type that was (is?) most common in Ireland. Stick "snuff at a wake" into Google and you'll see what I mean.

Originally posted by red_ice
Its 100% safe and there are absolutly no side effects.. other than a wearing on the gum upwards beside your nose, but that takes YEARS of snusing... Its virtually the most safe drug on the planet.

It is not 100% safe:

"There appears to be the illusion that smokeless tobacco is a safe alternative to cigarettes; however, long-term users of snuff are more than 50 times more likely to get oral cancer than non-users."
The World Health Organisation

They don't have any stats on it in comparison to smoking tobacco. You may be right in thinking that it's safer than smoking. Maybe it is, maybe it's not. It isn't as safe as not smoking/using snuff at all though. I would assume that it's about as safe as chewing tobacco (i.e. you just get cancers in different places).

The link you provided points to a snus company. I wouldn't trust them to be entirely accurate about how healthy their product is. After all there are still some cigarette manufacturers that claim that smoking does not cause lung cancer.

Originally posted by red_ice
I myself cant find it in any of the tobacconists in ireland, i tried when i ran out of it but i couldnt find it. How would i be able to get some?

You can't, at least not legally.

"It shall be an offence for a person to manufacture, import, supply, sell or invite an offer to purchase an oral smokeless tobacco product."
Public Health (Tobacco) Act, 2002 Section 38, Subsection 2

As far as I can see, there's no law saying you can't use it, just no-one is allowed to sell it or import it. IANAL though, there might be a seperate law saying that you can't use it.

If you do get your hands on some, you should use it to get off the cigarettes. Then, when your supply runs out, don't go back to cigarettes. I mean, if you managed to stay off cigarettes and snus for a month before, you should be able to do it again, and this time you'll know that "for old time's sake" is a bad idea.