Snus Vs. Cigarettes: Round 2

Alright, here I am, finally back for another report. I'm a little brain addled today, so we'll see if I can cover the couple things I want to here.

First I plan to report in on my continuing experiment with snus vs. cigarettes, of course. Then a little further in hand out some info as to what I think a newbie snuser (snubie ;)) can expect when getting started with snus. This will be based both on my own snubie experience and other general experiences I've picked up from everyone sharing their stories over at the snuscentral forums.

Right-O. So, today marks two weeks to the day since my first order of swedish snus arrived. I've also now marked just about three full days without a single cigarette. Not that long, I know, but it's not something I've been able to say since I was 14 years old.

Some people seem to immediately pick up snus and put down the cigarettes, making a full switch all at once. I still had a few packs kicking around, which made it pretty easy to pick one up when I felt the craving, and while I was pretty determined to quit, I'm not all that good at torturing myself unnecessarily. So I decided to not put too much pressure on myself or the snus , and try and let things take their natural course. I also pretty well convinced myself this path would be more objective in being able to judge snus vs. cigarettes.

In the first days I immediately cut down to 3-4 cigarettes a day, with relapses here and there as I ran into the addiction of routine, the fact that I'd integrated smoking into my life at a point when I was growing up and "defining" myself and my lifestyle. And of course, habits are habits. We get attached to our routines. Not to mention that when you're a smoker, there are often times, especially in the early years, where you really and truly enjoy smoking. The longer I smoked though, the more I realized how many cigarettes I was smoking without even paying attention to them, much less getting any enjoyment out of them. Even at the end though, when I was pretty sick of smoking, incredibly sick of the smell and its pollution of my clothing and of the one room of the house where we smoke, there were still those certain occasions where I found smoking truly blissful.

The first smoke of the morning, while not always the easiest or most pleasant smoke of the day, served the purpose of replenishing nicotine after going through the only lengthy smokeless period of a day... sleep.

The coffee and cigarette smoke. Which has always been one of my faves, naturally, as a huge fan of coffee since a young age. Having been a barista for 10 of the last 13 years, coffee has obviously been a pretty regular part of my life. I really did often wonder if it would ever be possible to quit smoking without making a career change.

The after dinner cigarette. Oh gods above! Is there anything more satisfying than having a wonderfully delicious and filling meal and following it up with a relaxing smoke?

And finally, the random stress smoke. How many times in my life, when things have gotten hectic, when some shit has gone down, when the kids are being batshit or have found some new antic to pull and instantly complicate our existence, has the phrase "I need a fucking cigarette." rolled out of my mouth? It's more than just the ease of getting that nicotine hit. It's a pause. A pause in the situation at hand, a pause for thought. Really probably one of the more truly useful types of smoking situations.

Okay, that's not really all of them. I could throw in the social clumsiness smoke, the awkward silence smoke, the boredom smoke, the you're smoking so I'm going to smoke smoke, the 7 minutes to kill might as well smoke smoke, and on. And on and on. But I digress.

So, fulfilling the nicotine addiction bit is really only part of the challenge. Breaking the habit of reaching for a cigarette in any number of habitual situations is a whole 'nother ballgame. I fought it here and gave into it there, wondering if it would become easier or harder once I didn't have any cigarettes left on hand. So far I haven't found out. I think I still have two smokes left in my last pack. And just to mess with myself, I keep that pack in the inside pocket of my jacket, that oh so convenient pocket I love any jacket for having.

I struggled with and overcame most of the random habitual smoking instances first. Those times when I just reach for a cigarette without really thinking about it. Okay, I still often reached for a cigarette, but most of the time realized I already had a snus in my mouth, obviously didn't need the nicotine, and would possibly make myself sick with the added nic spike of smoking and snussing at the same time.

Surprisingly to me, the coffee and cigarette smoke was one of the first big ones to go. This was probably helped along by cold wet weather, discouraging me from standing out in it. Or perhaps more so by finding that the first snus to become a fave of mine, Roda Lacket, went exceptionally well with a basic, single tall latte. This allowed me to start a new morning routine and replace the old. I now have a Roda Lacket around the same time every morning, usually with a latte, though I switch up my coffee drinks a fair amount.

The biggest challenges ended up being the after dinner smoke, and the stress smoke. After the first week there were days where my only smoke was the after dinner smoke. Other days I might have 2 or 3 smokes, and those were generally random stress smokes.

But in the end what really got me past most of the challenging smoking situations has been the fact that the less I smoke, the less enjoyable I find it to smoke. I relapsed last Saturday and smoked a whole handful in a day, and regretted it quite a bit for how it left me feeling. After that the next couple days each time I gave into a craving and started smoking, I was strongly aware of how little I was enjoying the smoke, how it wasn't doing much of anything for me, that it tasted pretty ick, made my mouth feel dry and pasty, and that while smoking it I was thinking about some sweet and/or salty deliciousness of a snus.

So all in all the experiment seems to be a success on the side of snus. I can't say I don't still have cravings for cigarettes. And I can't guarantee I'm not going to smoke those last two I've got at some point. Three days without smoking isn't making the cravings lessen, quite the contrary. But when I face the craving and think about what it's going to be like to actually go light up, I realize pretty quickly that it's pretty much pointless, and that makes it pretty easy to set aside.

So that's that. The way quitters tend to relapse, I know three days smoke free wouldn't convince any sort of skeptic, but I find it pretty unimaginable that I'd return to my lifestyle of smoking a pack a day.

Now, even if I never smoke another cigarette, I'm still an addict. I don't find this fact exactly thrilling, but am still incredibly happy about breaking the chain of cigarettes. There are so many things about smoking that are pretty negative in nature aside from the nicotine addiction. Over the last two weeks I've fallen in love with swedish snus. So when I post about the stuff, you'll hear me enthusiastically praising it, lauding its virtues, raving about how much I love it, maybe even seeming a bit evangelical about it.

So let me lay out something right here. I may not always say it at the time, but when I talk about how wonderful swedish snus is it will always be in the context of vs. my previous smoking habit, and in the context of a tobacco product, none of which are completely safe or good for you. If you're not an addict you are best of staying that way. If you are an addict and can kick that addiction, you rock. If you're an addict and are probably going to stay an addict, then aim for the least detrimental path possible. For nicotine addicts, that path seems to be snus.

With the cravings I fought and the challenges I found quitting smoking using snus, I can hardly imagine what it would be like to try and quit with some other methods. Other nicotine replacement methods don't seem to offer the same amounts of nicotine, or as pleasant a delivery, and tend to cost a fortune. Of course, their goal is to wean you off nicotine, not permanently replace, but I have to wonder how long it would have taken me to develop a strong enough desire to quit for those to be enough. And cold turkey? I shudder to think.

Alrighty, that's the report. Because of the length it ended up being, and my brain addled and tired state, I'm going to close here and break the post of what snubies can expect in their first days and weeks into a separate post to follow soon.

Shameful Neglect

Well, the weather changed back to cool, cloudy and wet, as it is wont to do here in Oregon. Fortunately I got the last portions of yard mowed, the front and way back, and split and stacked the rest of the wood. Put all the tools up and prepared for more rain.

I assumed with the return of outside unfriendly weather I'd get back here and back to work on the couple posts I've had brewing. Buuuuut, I haven't. Instead I've been watching some crazy end of the regular season hockey games where teams that are already out of the playoff race have been getting way too close to winning games with teams that should be walking all over them. But, it's that kind of sport.

And while I've been back at the keyboard, I've ended up completely neglecting blogger and even to a great extent *gasp* facebook. Instead I've been spending most of my online time over at the forums on snuscentral.org as I've found it to be not just a great source of info on all things snus, but also a pretty great community of snus enthusiasts who welcome snus newbies (snubies?) into the fold with open arms, answer all questions helpfully, and enable us snubies to quickly grow into the next wave of educated enthusiasts.

And there's a lot to talk about. Many things are afoot in the snus world, mostly due to just how much is going on with tobacco legislation in the US. It's all both exciting and scary. As I've found a way to leave behind a nasty and dangerous habit, and found something I'm growing to love more than I ever did love smoking, there looms the definite possibility that my access to it will become extremely restricted, or cut off entirely.

So I haven't been able to quite figure out what post to start with. The followup report on my experience with Snus vs. Cigarettes? All the new tobacco regulations being proposed? Exciting snus news and reviews? Hard to say.

Or I may just end up back in the forums trying to back up my claims that the Red Wings will NOT win the Stanley Cup again this year.

Quick Snus News

Well, the sun finally came out in Oregon, it's been here for a few days, and may not be here many more. This has kept me pretty busy with both the boost in business and having to work a bit harder, but mostly it's taken me outside and away from the computer to get working on the yard and other outdoor projects. It was only 60 degrees Saturday, but I still managed to get sunburned, wasn't expecting that.

Anyhow, another week gone by and I'm still snusing it up. Not going to go into depth here, just a quick report that it's grown on me even more. Any aversion to the taste is gone, in general, though there are still a few types I'm not especially fond of, but most have gotten better and better as I've grown used to snus in general, and as my sense of smell and taste has started to return from it's lengthy hiatus. Eventually I'll take the time to rundown impressions on various types. I'm hoping in the next day or two I'll get my second order in and have another 10 or so to try out and add to the list.

But what I really wanted to pass along today was the weekly special at getsnus.com. Right now they are offering a 12 can pack of 4 different sterk (strong) snus varieties for $29.95. It's pretty much a hell of a deal. I haven't ordered from getsnus myself, as so far their variety hasn't matched that of northerner or snuscentral, but I did hit em up on their free sample offer and was amazed at how fast I got it. They are located in the states, so naturally shipping is quicker than the overseas places. Of the 4 sterk varieties, I've only tried 2 so far. The General Extra Sterk and the Skruf Stark. Both are great, especially when you want a big nicotine kick. I like em first thing in the morning, or after a big meal. Those times when I normally loved loved loved my cigarette. The Skruf Stark has a fairly strong flavor, I'm still dabbling with it, but it is a favorite of many, and a staple snus for quite a few. The General Extra Sterk is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I'm surprised at the variance in flavor between General Portions, General Onyx, and General Extra Sterk. The Portions are mostly just salty, the Onyx is much saltier with a bit of spicy pepper, stronger than the portions. The Extra Sterk however is mostly just salty, but where I'd expect them to be even stronger in flavor I find them more mild than the Onyx, and with a wonderful underlying sweetness. This week they are my pick for first thing in the morning snus.

The other 2 varieties I haven't tried. Claq Qui by Roda Lacket I would have had in my first order but they weren't immediately available at Northerner. I've got a can coming in my second order and am highly anticipating it as I love Roda Lacket to the point where I've been rationing my last handful of portions to have one a day to go with my latte at work. The other variety is Offroad Original Strong, and I've yet to try any Offroad varieties at all. They tend to be less expensive than others, but have pretty mixed reviews. But all in all this is a great sampler pack of strong snus for a pretty generous price. Might not be the best for those new to snus, but if you already like snus and want some strong, high nicotine portions, check out this deal here.

Snus vs. Cigarettes: Round 1

It's been about five days since my first order of Swedish Snus arrived and I started trying out a selection of brands and varieties, trying to use it to replace my fifteen year addiction to Camel Filter Cigarettes. So not a lot of time on the Snus yet, but enough to feel more familiar with it and to report in on first impressions and general progress.

As an addict whose only form of nicotine delivery has ever been cigarettes, snus is taking some getting used to. I've never tried chew or dip. My father dipped skoal for many years before quitting, and I can remember many a long car ride where he'd put some in and the car would fill with the nauseatingly sweet cloying smell. That and the random Bud cans kicking about with spit in em was enough to form a permanent aversion to the stuff.

I've never had any sort of tobacco juice floating around in my mouth, nor really tasted tobacco that wasn't being incinerated and inhaled as smoke. Nor have I really had many things stuck up under my lip, especially my top lip, which just seems like an odd place to put stuff. So all-in-all this was a brand new experience for me. I'd read so many testimonials from people who absolutely love the stuff, swear by it, and quit smoking, chewing, or dipping relatively easily by using snus, that it was hard not to have high expectations colored by all the favorable commentary.

It took about a week for my first order to arrive from The Northerner. Not bad for overseas mail. I ordered on a Thursday and received it the following Thursday. By the time it got here I was looking forward to it so much, and getting more and more sick of smoking each day, that I "Woohooed!" when I opened the mailbox and it took a fair amount of restraint to keep myself from skipping back across the lawn to the house. So again, it was hard not to color my first experience with high expectations.

I went inside, ripped into the padded envelope and started pulling out the couple handfuls of small round cans, lining them up in front of me. I get a weird aesthetic thrill out of having any multitude of small things, strange, and hard to explain. It's amazing I don't have collections of random objects. I also enjoy design, so laying out these little cans and looking at the various packaging and labeling designs was a joy in itself.

Now to get down to it. I decided to start at the top, with a General Onyx portion. These are technically "White" portions, meaning the portion doesn't go through a final stage of wetting, where the teabag like portion material is saturated with tobacco juice, making it moist and speeding up the time in which you start getting the full flavor and juices from it. But the General Onyx portion material is black, and very smooth. The portions are also arranged in the can in a circular "fan" where they sit up on edge, instead of all just being tossed willy-nilly into the can. It's a pretty impressive package when you open the sleek looking chrome topped black can. The portions are also more tapered, rather than being a plump little pillow of snus. It seemed this might help it fit under the lip better, conforming to the contours of mouth and lip. Though after trying a variety out, I can't say the Onyx really sit up there easier or more comfortably than some others.

Finding the right spot under the top lip for the portion can be a little tricky at first. Really, there didn't seem to be an innate spot where it just fit and sat comfortably. Initially, all portions seem to feel bulky under the lip. You really feel like you've got a huge bump in the front of your face. It can be somewhat surprising to see that it's really not very noticeable, and if you can look at yourself unselfconsciousy, you'll probably realize that to someone who didn't know it was there, they would be able to tell. The biggest effect it has is that you lose some of the natural mobility of that side of your lip. When you talk or smile or laugh, the portion holds one side of your top lip more or less in place, resulting in a somewhat crooked smile, though still not anything too strange or deformed looking.

At first, the portion burned pretty well against the inside of my lip. This is often described as a "tingle" in snus instructions, but it was most definitely more of a burn. This tapered off some after a few minutes, to mostly be replaced with a salt and peppery taste, along with an unfamiliar tobacco taste as the portion "juiced up" as it got moistened with saliva. The juice wasn't really the tastiest thing ever, nor did it feel especially pleasant going down my throat. The sensation in my throat was definitely more of a "tingle" than a "burn", but really wasn't very comfortable at all.

So it wasn't an immediate love. It wasn't an "Mmmmm delicious" sort of experience. I stuck with the portion for about an hour though, giving it the full chance, and waiting for the nicotine to set in. Despite having a higher than normal 11mg of nicotine, I didn't get any sort of buzz off of it, though I certainly didn't find myself jonesin' for a smoke or anything either. For the most part I found myself wanting to get done with the portion, not because I didn't like it, but because I still had a multitude of other varieties to try out.

The real test came the following day, the first day of starting with Snus first thing in the morning and going through a workday with it. I have to say it worked well. I pretty quickly grew to really like the nicotine delivery of the snus, as it gives a much longer lasting appeasement to the addiction. I got a little wound up when I combined my morning coffee with a portion, the caffeine and nicotine together had me twitching along for a bit, but for the most part it seemed the more constant supply of nicotine gave me a more peaceful fix than the quick but short lived burst from a cigarette, that quickly leaves me wanting another cigarette.

As the days have gone by, I've gotten more and more used to the sensation and taste of the snus. I do find it much more enjoyable to snus while having some drink to sip on, and the flavors combine well with a variety of things. I've already decided that Roda Lacket for instance, pairs nicely with my morning latte, while Ettan or Onyx goes better with black coffee. Roda Lacket is so far my favorite, so I've combined it with more things, like Honey Ginseng green tea, delicious. And so far most of them have gone just fine with the dark beers I favor. Overall though, I probably primarily just keep a glass of ice water handy to sip on and keep the portion wet and my mouth rinsed. I've never been a big fan of drinking water, so am probably taking in the recommended amount of daily hydration for the first time in my life. Add that to only smoking about 4 cigarettes a day after so many years of at least a pack a day, and there are some pretty immediate indications that snus is going to be much healthier for me.

As far as quitting smoking, I'm sure that will come in time. From the first portion I tried, my smoking dropped drastically, and since then, like I said, it's been around 4 cigarettes a day. I still find it challenging at times not to smoke, mostly due to routines and habits, and those times when I feel the need for an immediate boost of nicotine. First thing in the morning, after a large meal, when I'm just sitting around with little to do, or most especially when I'm feeling particularly stressed. I'm sure any of these things would be fairly easy to overcome, except that I've still got cigarettes around. I had about two and a half packs left in my carton when the snus came, so until those are gone, I'll probably still find myself reaching for one at times. There've already been more than a few times I've found my hand going for them out of habit, then realizing what I was doing, and that I currently had snus in my mouth, and certainly wasn't craving nicotine.

Even without having entirely quit so far, just dropping to a few a day I've started to notice odd side effects. I've already been startled a time or two when I've sensed odd smells. I've smoked for over half my life, so I'm pretty used to the "normality" of only really picking up on strong, pervasive scents that were in close proximity to me. So it's still catching me by surprise, and giving me that "something is out of place" feeling when I'm in a familiar area, around familiar things, and suddenly smell something unusual, only to hunt it down and realize it's nothing unusual at all.

Cigarettes also are smelling and tasting worse and worse as I go along. Which is one of the reasons I was able to pretty easily get past my initial neutrality towards the taste and sensation of the snus. I knew that cigarettes don't really taste good, how could they? That when I started they were kinda nasty and we really just kept puffing on em to get that nice nicotine buzz. We always said we'd quit as soon as we stopped getting the buzz, that there'd be no point after that. Of course, once you stop getting that buzz, you're hooked. But we were 14, what the hell did we know?

So that's where this experiment is at. About five days in, I'm snussin' all the time, and only smoking a few times a day. Getting more and more used to and fond of the snus, more able to distinguish particular flavors in the varieties, and pick out my personal faves and not so much choices. Putting together a second order to try out some more of the many different types, and get some of the more heavily flavored and mini portions for Ariel to give a shot as so far she's not at all fond of the regular tobaccoey flavors.

Even having a portion in pretty constantly, I've barely made a dent in the first order of 10 cans I put in. That order ran me about $38 with shipping, which in today's market would get me what... not even eight packs of smokes. Obviously the cans I have will last me much longer than the eight days tops $38 worth of smokes would last. Even buying cartons would be $45 every ten days, and $45 worth of snus could easily last twice as long or longer. So the good things keep adding up.

I'll update again on the continued progress of this experiment, once I have a better idea of daily use and have been using it long enough to get more familiar with the flavors and such I'll list off some of my faves and give some tips for picking out varieties to start with.

Center Ice blackouts for NHLTV, another great cable ripoff

Being a hockey fan living in an area of the country nearly devoid of hockey fans, not to mention professional hockey teams, the availability to subscribe to Center Ice for the hockey season is a pretty enjoyable thing. When I first moved to Oregon in April of 2002, it was at the very beginning of that year's post season. I thought surely when I got here that I'd be able to find a channel that would broadcast at least some of the playoff games, or at the very least, a sports bar where I could watch them, or the Stanley Cup finals at the least.

No dice. I quickly came to the realization that in general, people in Oregon aren't interested in Hockey, and I pretty much gave up on being able to watch it. So for a few years I pretty much stopped following the game. Then one day in 2006, after having moved a few miles from Charter Cable territory into Comcast territory I realized there was a new channel in the listings, OLN, and that intermittently amidst a rather scattered and repetitious programming lineup, they actually broadcast some hockey games.

Moving forward, OLN was eventually replaced with VS, or became VS, or something of the sort, and I realized also that CSN (Comcast Sports Network) also was occasionally broadcasting hockey games. And then during the 07-08 seasons, I noticed that sometimes on Sundays NBC would broadcast a "game of the week". This was all pretty great news to me, being able to finally catch the odd hockey game was fantastic, especially during the playoffs when there was constantly hockey on.

But after a year of trying to follow along throughout the season, and finding that the teams we'd get to see were pretty random when it came to VS and NBC, and limited to "local" hockey teams on CSN (local as in mostly the Vancouver Canucks 425 miles away in Canada, which is a different country, btw. Or the occasional San Jose Sharks game, 565 miles away in California, which borders Oregon, but may still qualify as another country). I could care less about the Canucks, though after watching Vancouver's Hordichuk take a run at Dallas's goalkeeper Marty Turco last night, I'm hoping to get the chance to see Vancouver stomped into the ground in the playoffs. Hating hockey teams is almost as much fun as loving them.

I grew up watching Lemieux play, and have always been a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, and my sweetheart is a Texas transplant, and an avid Dallas Stars fan. So being stuck in the northwest and only being able to catch our teams play every great once in a while before playoff season pretty much just sucked. So this year we made the decision in October that we'd give ourselves an early Christmas present and sign up for Center Ice. At $160 for around 6 months of hockey, it wasn't a terrible deal, as far as cable deals go, though certainly not cheap, but hey, hockey almost every day!

Sometimes the programming has been tricky to follow, you can never be quite sure what broadcast you're going to get for a game. Sometimes you get the home broadcast, sometimes away, sometimes a choice of which one you watch, sometimes their more national and less biased, sometimes you have to sit through another team's whiny announcers who couldn't call a hockey game with any objective prospective if their life depended on it. And sometimes a game you know is on doesn't show up in the Center Ice listings and you have to scramble around the other channels to find it on VS. or CSN or NBC.

See, they have what they call "blackouts" for "local" networks. This makes some sense. If you have a local network that broadcasts the games, Center Ice doesn't compete with them and won't broadcast the same game as them in your market. That was pretty much fine and dandy for a while, as that just meant the game was to be found on another channel. Though really, this didn't seem to apply to CSN games. I've seen San Jose games being broadcast on two Center Ice channels, plus the Center Ice HD channel, plus CSN, all at the same time. Weird, but no problems.

Then came the NHLTV channel in the listings. It seemed that when it started off it was mostly playing "classic" games. Cool! But of course, we couldn't watch them. It turned out that channel was only available as part of a totally separate sports package. So, for some additional monthly fee, you could get that channel, as well as channels for a bunch of sports we don't care about. Not really worthwhile, but oh well.

But, in the last couple months, it's started to become a problem. All of a sudden, NHLTV is broadcasting games live, and they seem to be pretty random, as well as probably just feeds picked up from other networks, the same way they do with Center Ice. The problem is, that the NHLTV broadcasts are treated by Center Ice the same way local network broadcasts are, and they are "blacked out" from Center Ice. So now, on a random but more and more frequently occurring basis, when I go through the Center Ice listings for the day and look for the games I want to set the DVR to record, I find my games missing. I then search VS. for the day. When I don't seem it there I start to get worried/angry. I search NBC on the off chance they might actually show a hockey game on a weeknight. No. CSN ont he chance they're broadcasting something other than Vancouver or San Jose. No. So, feeling defeated, I go and check the NHLTV listings, and sure enough, there's the Dallas or Pittsburgh game I'd been looking forward to watching.

It's pretty clear this was done on purpose. Not to respect the broadcast rights of other networks in local markets as the others are done, but to push people to pony up for yet another package subscription. Not surprising really, Cable television gets more and more ludicrously priced all the time, and the packages are constantly redesigned with an obvious intent to drag people into higher and higher tiers. As it is I'm just waiting to see what the next bill is going to look like, since Comcast has promised rate increases, and has rearranged not just their programming tiers, but how they bill for things like extra cable boxes, digital outlets, and remotes. Should be interesting to see their new gouging schemes.

But seriously, I'm already paying a premium for the channels I have, for the DVR they gave me a couple years ago which they've now decided is an HD DVR and charge me $13.95 for even though I don't have an HDTV, and it was the ONLY DVR available when I got it. And I've paid a decent chunk of money to be able to watch the hockey team I love, and now I can't watch the Calgary @ Pittsburgh game tonight? We're nearing the end of the regular season, and these games are BIG! There's a huge chance this game will be a great one, but despite my weighty cable bill, I'll be reduced to listening to the game broadcast at best.

Bastards. Cable companies are just rotten bastards.

Free Swedish Snus!

Good news for anyone curious about Swedish Snus, Snus in general, smokeless tobacco products, alternatives to cigarettes, or who just like free stuff; General Snus is offering free samples of a variety of their fine snus blends. Just go to generalsnus.com and look for the the samples link. Jump through some age verification hoops and give em your address and they'll send you some samples. Of course, they say 4-6 weeks for delivery, so you may have forgotten all about it before they get there. But surprises are always nice!

UPDATE: More free General Snus! For $1 shipping you can receive an entire can of General Snus for free. Getsnus.com is offering this great sample offer.

Seems like it's a good time to try Swedish Snus.

FDA regulation of Tobacco, what's it all mean?

Hot on the heels of my post about Camel Orbs leading me to the discovery and research into Swedish Snus, I received an email from RJ Reynolds yesterday.

"Stop FDA form making your tobacco products taste like 'lard'!" was the subject. The body of the email containing quite a bit of spin on proposed legislation to put tobacco products, which are currently mostly unregulated, under the oversight of the FDA. RJ Reynolds argues that this would allow the FDA to make any changes they wanted to products, potentially even making them taste terrible and jacking up the prices even more.

That's quite a bit of conjecture there. I didn't hear anything to the tune of "If this passes, it will have this effect on consumers." And the best reactionary headline they could come up with was to stop the FDA from making cigarettes taste like lard? That's it? Like that would ever happen.

I seriously doubt the FDA would care to control the flavor of tobacco products. What they would most likely do is require disclosure of the ingredients, tobacco levels, and amounts of carcinogens to be disclosed to consumers. Kinda like how if you look at a box of cereal you can see that it's made of high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and yellow #5 and contains 5% of your recommended daily dose of shits and giggles.

Pretty scary, isn't it? That they might actually be forced to tell us what they put in their products. And god only knows what might happen then.

But seriously, what is in our cigarettes? I'd certainly like to know. I mean, it's kinda late. For 15 years I've been burning and inhaling god knows what sort of substances into my lungs. Better late than never, but I cringe to think that besides the nicotine and tar, that there are a variety of other carcinogenic or simply toxic things I've been consuming on a daily basis.

For instance, I keep running across information stating that many cigarettes are somewhere around 15% sugar. I'm having a hard time digging up any really recent or reputable sources for these claims, but the info I do come up with is intriguing and frightening. Sugar and other sweeteners supposedly can be added to make a smoke smoother, but it is also reported that burning sugar creates a chemical reaction that makes nicotine even more addictive, as well as of course give you a pretty decent sucrose addiction as well, making it that much harder to ever quit the shit.

Ouch. That's not very nice! I've also seen statements to the effect that the sugar in cigarettes is really the most harmful part, that inhaling the burning sugar is basically pretty toxic and probably the main cause of lung cancer. True or not? I don't know. Is there really that much sugar in cigarettes? We don't know, because they don't have to tell us.

So. Ingredient, additive, and carcinogen disclosure. Doesn't really sound like a bad thing to me. Now, the FDA would also be given the power to potentially regulate additives, etc. This must be where RJ Reynolds gets their claim that the FDA could make cigarettes taste gross... Because cigarettes are sooo delicious? Really though, most likely the FDA would only regulate and restrict the levels of carcinogens, chemical additives with harmful health effects, etc. Which doesn't really sound like a bad thing.

In Sweden regulating tobacco like a food product brought about industry changes resulting in new recipes and manufacturing processes wherein tobacco for Swedish Snus is steam pasteurized, destroying most of the naturally occurring carcinogens in tobacco. In addition, you not only can easily find out what's in the product, but generally find it's a pretty short and simple list of ingredients.

Here's what we get for General Portion Snus:

Declaration of Contents: Water, Tobacco, Humectants (E 1520), Taste enhancer (common salt), Acidity regulator (E 500), Flavour substances incl. Smoke flavour.

Analytical Data: Water 50%, Nicotine 8 mg/portion, Salt 2,5%

Even the Humectants are standard and easy to find out what exactly they are. They are generally used to keep foodstuffs moist, so are pretty common. E 1520 for example is propylene Glycol, E 500 seems to be sodium bicarbonate. Yeah, baking soda. So, you've probably got more enigmatic and weird stuff in any sort of processed or prepared food and beverages you buy.

You can also get a hold of the level of TSNAs in their products, which are supposed to be the really nasty cancer causing thingies. And something which is most definitely not readily available to find out about american tobacco products. Wouldn't you like to know just what you're putting in your body?

All-in-all, this doesn't seem like a bad system. Personally I'm pretty fond of the idea of disclosure, transparency, etc. I feel like if I'm going to be paying for something to put into my body, I deserve the right to know what's in it. The same as I like the idea of government transparency. The government gets paid by us, right, so it makes sense that we should get to have some idea of what they are up to. Especially since the majority of legislation is passed in this country without our direct input. We get to vote for people to represent us, but are they really making choices and voting in a way that represents us? Hard to say sometimes.

And when it comes down to it, it is hard to say what the effects of legislation putting tobacco under the regulation of the FDA would, in reality have. There are plenty of good arguments for it. There's plenty of potential to make positive changes that would allow for consumer awareness, education, and potential health benefits to the public. But the FDA certainly is not the most straightforward government agency. Nor, if you start digging around, do they seem to be the most moral, ethically, or well intentioned agency. As is often the case these days, personal agendas tend to take precedence over public health and welfare, personal agendas generally being similar in a singular focus on personal profit.

So would the FDA really make any significant changes for the better? Or would it just allow the FDA to take their cut of the gifts and bribes from Big Tobacco? Hard to say.

Personally, at this point I have more concern over whispers of legislation that would make it basically impossible to buy tobacco products over the internet. While I understand that it is mostly being considered for the sake of cigarettes, and because of concerns from many states and on the federal level about people dodging the incredible taxes on cigarettes by purchasing online. The end result of that sort of legislation could be to make it impossible to get products like Swedish Snus in most parts of the US. Leaving folks with only the products of domestic big tobacco companies.

I know that no tobacco products is healthy. I realize we'd all be better off quitting entirely, but if there's a product that's 98% safer than cigarettes that the millions of smokers could potentially quite smoking and switch to in a very short amount of time, does it make sense to make it a felony to have it shipped to your house?

But again, whether it's corporations or government, time and again the trend we see is profitability over the well being of the public.

So I won't be writing and phoning my legislators to tell them to oppose the bill for FDA regulation of tobacco. I'm not totally optimistic the FDA be at all altruistic in their regulation, but I don't think it can hurt too much. And I'm really really curious to see that list of ingredients for my Camel Filters. Especially after they changed the blend a year ago, since I'm sure the choice to change a classic and popular cigarette blend had to be driven by profitability.

However, I am trying to keep an eye on the various tobacco issues popping up these days, and will be writing, phoning, etc., if it seems that bills are coming forward that would restrict our access to better, safer alternatives to american tobacco products.