Snus Camp

Ok, I know there was supposed to be a third installment of Nanny States series, but due to things beyond my control I was unable to write it. I am not saying I am not going to write it but that as for right now it is on hold.

I recently had the opportunity to go to Family Camp was a dear friend and her family. She is a single mother of three children and is a non-tobacco user. Her 11year old son is asthmatic. I think of her like a sister and I enjoy taking her son fishing when I can. She knows I am a smoker but when I am with him I cannot and will not smoke. Snus is a blessing, and was a life saver the week of Family Camp.

When you read Family Camp, see Church Camp. Either way, smoking is severely frowned upon. At the last minute on Saturday night, after talking to Mick about it, I called my friend and accepted her invitation to go to camp for a week.  Then Mick helped me pack for a week of camp. Bless his snus loving heart he packed two cans of snus next to my bible.  There is nothing like a week in the middle of nowhere to help you appreciate the freedom of being able to light up when you want.

We arrived Sunday afternoon and unpacked into a large 14ft x 14ft cabin, with electric lighting and outlets. This was not tents in a field, bathing in the creek, but still no smoking. As I unpacked I found my two favorite tins of snus, my Nordic Ice Cherry and General Wintergreen.  I had just spent 3 hours packed in a car with three kids, ages 11, 9 and 2, with no stops or time for a smoke. I opened the can of Nordic Ice Cherry and smelled the contents of the can. A smile slowly crossed my face as the aroma of the cherry tobacco filled my nose and over took me. I popped one in my mouth letting the flavor fill my taste buds and the nicotine to soak in.

As I stood there for a minute, smiling from ear to ear, my friend noticed and asked if I was ok. I stood there for another minute, eyes closed, savoring the taste and flavor of my snus, while I said a little prayer of thanks for a husband who loved me so much as to think ahead. I turned slowly smiling from ear to ear and opened my mouth to reveal the small pouch on my tongue before slipping it into my lip. She smiled back at me and turned back to her task at hand.

It could have been a long night of edgy fidgeting, tense moments and general grouchiness. Instead all through the evening, during the mixer, I was my sweet, fun loving, pleasant self. I don’t think anyone except  my friend was aware of the little pouch of tobacco my loving husband had packed for me, discretely slipped away in my lip as I smiled and laughed the night away.

Early the next morning before anyone woke up; I slipped out and went up to a picnic shelter which sat directly on top of a hill. Our cabin was down a little path into a small grove of trees with several other small cabins situated around an outdoor unit kitchen area. From the shelter, I had the most beautiful view of the sun coming up over hills, the fog lying thickly below me in main camp and across the valley floor.

I closed my eyes as I listened to the birds singing their morning songs, felt the cool morning air on my skin and smelled the dew on the grass and trees. I lit up a cigarette and called my husband for our morning rituals. I was not half way through my cigarette when I put it out. It seemed wrong on some level to disrupt the tranquility with burning cigarette smoke. After I hung up with my husband I had another half an hour before anyone would notice I had slipped out.

Still wanting my morning nicotine I slipped in a portion of Nordic Ice Cherry Snus, sat back and enjoyed the few minutes I had left before the craziness of the day. Throughout the day and the next whenever I needed a cigarette I slipped in a portion of snus in my lip and within a few minutes I was smiling, enjoying my secret only my friend was aware of. I sang hymns, prayed and had full conversations with everyone.

Wednesday, after lunch, I was sitting with several of other campers, laughing, joking and talking about the evening’s plans; I pulled out my can of General Wintergreen snus.  Holding the portion I began to flick it to loosen up the tobacco when it went flying across the length of the table and landing in Zack’s macaroni and cheese, which he had just taken a spoonful. As my face turned several stunning shades of red, the young lady next to me asked, “What was that?”

I tried to play dumb and said, “What was what?” but there it lay big as life atop of his macaroni and cheese. Zack looked down just as he was about to scoop it up in his next spoonful, and asked what it was too. Now everyone at the table knew about it but only Beth, the girl next to me knew for sure, as to where it came from and bless her heart didn’t say a word.

Later that evening through evening service while we were singing Beth looked over at me and smiled. Confused I smiled back and noticed she kept looking over at me all through service. Beth was 23 and was there helping with the teen group. She was going to Kent State majoring in Health and Research. Her father, who had been a smoker most of his life, had died when she was in middle school from cancer. She wants to help find a cure for it.

After services, knowing I was a diabetic, she came to me and asked what had flown pass her at lunch. I explained how I was a smoker but while in camp I was unable to due to the no smoking policy. I told her it was snus and showed her my can of snus. After a long conversation which continued late into the night, I explained to her the difference between American snus, dip and Swedish snus. She seemed very interested. I explained how American snus was new and was cut with sugar whereas the Swedish snus was cut with salt.

She was full of great questions and seemed generally interested in how Swedish snus reduced my craving for cigarettes and what I had read about snus. She told me her uncle had lost most of his teeth because of a life time use of dip. I explained it could be due to the molasses and sugar used to cure American tobacco, and how there was a study about how Swedish snus was healthier than smoking. I told her about the 60 Minutes show. I feel she is going to check into it. To think maybe we would have a scientist on our side, which could prove what we have known all along. It wasn’t the dip that made her uncle loose his teeth but the sugar used to cure the tobacco.

Americans have been taught, “A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.” There is sugar in everything, fast food French Fries, in our burgers, and don’t get me started on how much sugar is in the pop we drink. Is it no wonder why the American Tobacco companies would put it in the tobacco we use? Americans are so over dosed with sugar that they debate which sugar is best for you. How about no sugar?

Sugar in tobacco makes it all you can taste. If I want to put sugar in my mouth I will eat a piece of hard candy thanks. Where is the flavor?  Sugar. Why is it all you can taste in American snus? Because the big mucky-mucks at the Big American Tobacco is trying to do to what they think they know instead of learning how to do it right.

If I am eating a piece of watermelon, plan I can taste the natural sweetness of the fruit, if I add sugar to it and eat it then I taste the over powering taste of the sugar. But if I put a touch of salt on the watermelon then I bring out the subtle yet bold taste of the watermelon itself. It enhances the flavor instead of covering it up. Cherry snus flavored to the Sweden profile with a light salt taste in the back ground brings out the cherry flavor in the tobacco, where as sugar only covers it up.

American tobacco companies have read what we have written and have listened to us, the market, they want to get in on an almost untapped market, yet like a politician up for reelection they promise the moon and stars.  When it is all said and done they give us crap, and want us to smile and say, ‘yumm please may I have another.” When what they are trying to give us is sugar mints. If I want a piece of candy I will suck on a piece of candy. If I want tobacco with flavor I reach for tried and true Swedish snus.

By the end of camp only my friend, who I came with and Beth knew I had used snus all week.

Something else that came to light while I was at camp about my cigarettes. Recently, I noticed if I do not take a draw on my cigarette after about 15 to 30 seconds it goes out and I have to relight it to finish the cigarette. I found there is now a chemical in the paper that extinguishes the cigarette if it is not being drawn on.  I understand this is a safety measure for people who might fall asleep with a lit cigarette. But in addition to the tar, nicotine, and half a dozen other chemicals that comes from burning tobacco now I have to inhale a fire retardant. As if my life is not complicated enough.

You never know; I may give up smokes yet.  But only if the American tobacco companies pay attention and get the sugar out of the tobacco.  As I am a diabetic I have to be more aware of the amount of sugar I can have. And if it comes down to a ice cream cone once in a while or their sweetened tobacco that taste like candy then the cone wins every time.

Long live the salty goodness of SWEDISH SNUS!

CATHERINE DeMARSH-HELLWIG

In the Wilderness for God and Snus
Reporting for SnusCENTRAL.org