I have never ever smoked. My mother was a chain smoker (60 a day) who was unable to take part in many activities because of her smoking. When my friends started thinking smoking was cool, I was repulsed by the thought.
When I came to Sweden I noticed that many Swedes had a prominent upper lip. I thought it was a Nordic facial feature, until someone told me that it was ‘snus lip’, a bump formed by a small pouch or pinch of moist oral tobacco under the top lip.
Sweden was given an EU exemption, allowing it to sell snus, which is illegal in the rest of the EU.
There is a shop near where I work, selling all kinds of snus. It is somewhat reminiscent of a candy store.
This is the refrigerated section.
There has been strong debate about the benefits of oral tobacco versus cigarettes. The Wikipedia article gives a good overview of the discussion.
Paul Haydon of the Guardian wrote, some years ago:
Consumed in Scandinavia since the mid-19th century, the popularity of Snus rose significantly from the 1970s onwards, as people became increasingly aware of the dangers of smoking. The proportion of male smokers fell dramatically from 40% in 1976 to just 15% in 2002. Almost a third of ex-smokers used Snus when quitting, and those who did were about 50% more likely to succeed. Sweden has one of the lowest mouth cancer rates in the EU. In addition, Sweden now has the lowest rate of tobacco-related diseases in Europe and the world’s lowest rate of lung cancer in males. While using Snus is still highly addictive, it is widely held to be between 95% and 99% less harmful than smoking.