Snus, Health and the Real Dr. Snus

PACT and FDA has made snus blogging a little depressing lately. It seems stupid to make a hummus snus experiment or review some snus we can’t get anymore right now. I also think I’ve kind of blown my wad on how dumb most of these new laws are.

Let’s go back to an old topic that is neither dull nor trite: Health. It’s been a while since Chad and I got back from Sweden, and I’ve been putting off writing about what was probably the best presentation we were given. Dr. Lars-Erik Rutqvist was the last one from the Swedish Match to speak to us, and it was pretty incredible.

Just like Chad and I, Lars used snus to quit smoking. Unlike us, he’s a doctor — an oncologist, I believe. The upshot of it all was: snus is safe. Now, he’s a little bit more nuanced of a guy than I am, so he might not have said those words exactly, but that certainly was the impression I got. To illustrate the minor dangers associated with it, he compared it to coffee, a very addictive substance with small amounts of known carcinogens.  Where’s the ban on mailing coffee? Why aren’t we worried about our kids getting irrevocably hooked? Why isn’t it taxed $1.32 per ounce here in stupid Texas?

(note: Dr. Rutqvist did note that Brad Rodu first brought this analogy to his attention, and Dr. Rodu’s blog is well worth reading.).

It’s the smoke that does so much harm. Imagine if you smoked caffeine. It would be horrible for you.

I know what some may say. “But what about mouth cancer studies I learned about in my public school health class?” A lot of those studies anti-tobacco folks tout are quite old and none are about snus. Just the other day, thisisswedishsnus.com provided some nice links on the science behind harm reduction. Chad has a dozen health-related links over at snubie. And snuscentral has a few dozen.

So millions will die. (Obama too, perhaps, as he hasn’t yet responded to my offer for more snus.)

After all, that’s why these dumbfuck laws are so tragic. Snus makes it fairly easy to stop smoking. Around the U.S., disgustingly wretched state governments in Iowa, South Dakota and Massachusetts (a state, I always mistrusted due to the fact that women there seem to genuinely give a shit about baseball) have banned the mailing of snus altogether. They can’t order online. This is particularly shitty when you think of people who live outside of a city where General is available. In South Dakota, you’re pretty much fucked, I imagine. It’s huge and there’s probably not a city worth a turd in the whole place.

Still, even in little Massachusetts, you’ll likely only find snus in Boston, which could be hours away. Read this letter a woman wrote to the Mass. Attorney General.

Fucked up, isn’t it?

What can you do? I don’t know. We could sign this petition, but our government doesn’t care what we think.