Smokeless Tobacco

While the number of students smoking has decreased in the last few years, the number of high school men and women using smokeless tobacco is higher than the adult population. According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 13.6% of all Florida high school males are using smokeless tobacco products. This compares to 6% of male adults and less than 1% of female adults nationally.

It’s the usual suspects. Peer pressure, celebrity lifestyles, rebellion, economics, gang participation and the use of illegal drugs and alcohol in general. For example, one in three major league baseball players use smokeless tobacco, mainly snuff. Obviously, a sports hero spitting on the mound before the final pitch in a no hitter carries some sway.

It doesn’t help that the marketing geniuses at the tobacco companies have put new spins on smokeless tobacco products. In fact, these products are even being marketed as substitutes for people trying to quit smoking or who want to enjoy the “fine flavor” of tobacco in public places where smoking is no longer allowed. With creative slogans like, “Anytime, Anywhere” and “No Smoking, No Problem”, these savvy marketers have managed to fold their smokeless tobacco into the huge market of products that are actually meant to help people break their addiction to nicotine.

Case in point. Orlando served as the test market for Camel SNUS, one of the latest products to be introduced in the smokeless market. New flavors such as wintergreen, cherry, vanilla, apple and even grape mirror the flavor in the soda market in an obvious attempt to attract younger audiences to the smokeless tobacco category.

A lot of people like to claim that smokeless tobacco is safer than smoking cigarettes. And while the former doesn’t give off carcinogen-laced smoke, it is still highly addictive. In fact, chewing tobacco has on average 4.5 milligrams (mg) of nicotine compared to 1 to 2 mg in a cigarette. Snuff isn’t much better. It has 3.6 mgs, or roughly two to three times the nicotine of an average cigarette. Sadly, Camel SNUS is supposed to be the equivalent of four cigarettes so the situation isn’t getting better but worse.

Once nicotine enters the bloodstream from the mouth, it travels through the rest of your body. Over time, it creates a dependency that is hard to break. It gives the user a pleasurable feeling, much like any addictive drug. Eventually your body gets used to the levels of nicotine so you get fewer benefits. In other words, you need more and more nicotine to achieve the same level of effect.

Don’t be fooled. Nicotine is still as addictive when chewing as when you smoke it. Users still suffer withdrawal and weaning yourself off smokeless tobacco products is as difficult as giving up cigarettes. The withdrawal symptoms are because of the nicotine, not the method of delivery.

When smokeless tobacco users try to cut back or quit, the lack of nicotine leads to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is both physical and mental. Physically, the body is reacting to the absence of nicotine. Mentally, the user is faced with giving up a habit, which calls for a major change in behavior. Both must be dealt with if quitting is to be successful.

Withdrawal symptoms can appear even if you’ve only chewed for a few weeks. The symptoms will start within a few hours of your last chew or dip. They’ll begin to subside after 2 or 3 days.