About SnusCENTRAL

In 2007, a Blogger writing under the pen name of Mr. Unloadingzone discovered Camel SNUS. He had long been searching for a way to reduce the risks of his 30+ year cigarette habit. A loyal R.J. Reynolds customer since the 1970’s, Mr. Unloadingzone first forced himself to switch from Camel Lights to Eclipse Cigarettes. It was a struggle but Eclipse did not leave him reeking of the cigarette smell which has become so socially unpopular in the United States.

Eclipse’s Reduced Harm Benefits (if any) are yet to be fully disclosed but Mr. Unloadingzone wrote numerous articles praising Eclipse for its valiant attempt to make a more discreet cigarette on his general subject blog, The Unloading Zone. These articles receive a large number of page views to this day.

Camel SNUS was not really to his liking but if he could use it anywhere with complete discretion and it would curb his nicotine cravings, he was up to the challenge. Since he had to chain-snus to keep his nicotine levels up and Camel SNUS was so expensive, Mr. Unloadingzone again jumped onto the Internet looking for on-line stores which sold Camel SNUS at a discount. Google searched away under the keyword “snus” and an odd thing happened. While virtually no results on Camel Snus appeared, large numbers of results did concerning “Swedish Snus”. Like most Americans, Mr. Unloadingzone never heard of Swedish Snus.

What he read intrigued him. Reynolds and Philip Morris USA had not invented snus in 2006; the Swedes had over 200 years ago. And fortunately for him, Up In Smoke, a tobacco store 5 minutes from his house carried a very limited selection of genuine Swedish Snus.

Within moments, he was at the tobacco store staring in wonder at the contents of a container of General Portion Snus. There were a lot more portions of General snus than Camel SNUS provided. Each was much bigger, and they were moist. He was confused but inserted a portion into his mouth. It was like going from flavored sawdust to Fillet Minion!

Returning home, he wrote an article about his experience entitled ” Camel and Marlboro: When it Comes to Snus, You LOSE! “. Today, this is the most widely read article on snus on the Internet.

The response to the article was overwhelming. Visits to The Unloading Zone quadrupled in a matter of days. Seeing the reader interest and wanting to know more about Swedish Snus himself, Mr. Unloadingzone spent months in a frustrating attempt to separate Internet fact from fiction; marketing from genuine information; politically motivated Research Studies from objective Research Studies, and focused his growing snus knowledge into articles and reference lists for his readers. His snus interested readership continued to grow as did his knowledge and compilation of facts.

In 2008 he became frustrated. The Unloading Zone had originally been designed as a personal/stress relieving blog about what interested Mr. Unloadingzone at the time. It was too under-powered to easily categorize all his snus information and there was more functionality he wanted to include but was simply unable, being limited by The Unloadingzone’s technical limitations. His other readers which were more interested in other topics were expressing their displeasure too.

On a fateful day in May of 2008, Mr. Unloadingzone asked himself a question: “What type of snus informational website would HE have wanted to use during his infuriating searches for real information on Swedish Snus and American Snus back in 2007?”

And thus the concept code-named Über-Snus was born: a Single Website Solution which would contain anything and everything those interested in learning the facts about Snus and a place for Snus Users to share information and make friends with like-minded people. Mr. Unloadingzone contacted a number of his readers privately for their input and added his own desires. The scope of the Über-Snus project kept growing and growing.

On December 5^thof 2008, SnusCENTRAL.org was beta launched. In less than four months, it had become the most comprehensive Snus information site on the planet. And this was only the beginning….

Functionality and content was continually added with the original Members being beta-testers. One item added was the Founding Member badge for Member’s blogs, websites, emails, and social networking sites. There are currently 11 badges available (they are invisible to guests; they and some other functionality are only available to Members and Membership is free). All will remain and new ones will be added EXCEPT for the Founding Member Badge. Once certain metrics were achieved, that badge was removed forever as a gift and a tribute to the Founding Members who actively involved themselves in the SnusCENTRAL Experience.

He really loved that SnusCENTRAL Members took and active interest in the site; offering suggestions, ideas, reporting bugs, and generally adopted the SnusCENTRAL as their own.

While Mr. Unloadingzone was the sole author on The Unloading Zone, SnusCentral.org actively and very carefully screens new columnists for their own sections. Member participation is also actively encouraged through Member Reviews of both Swedish Snus and American Snus, and the SnusCENTRAL Forum.

Guest Columnists and Snus Reviews appeared on the site as well and in an industry first, Swedish Match AB, the largest producer of Swedish Snus in the world, was given their own section on SnusCENTRAL.org to directly respond to Member questions, unsolicited advice, and generally interact with their consumers and the snus curious. V2 Tobacco A/S soon followed.

SnusCENTRAL.org continues to grow and Mr. Unloadingzone’s dream of the ultimate, all-encompassing, everything snus website is now a reality. His determination to ensure that the remaining 46MM+ American Cigarette Smokers are not deceived into using dangerous, overpriced, products self-described as Snus without knowing all the facts first, lives on.

People of legal age are (still) free to use any type of product they like in America; but SnusCENTRAL is determined that they be Educated Consumers and know exactly what they are putting into their mouths. That was and is the mission of SnusCENTRAL and as it continues to grow and become even more powerful, into new area including tobacco legislation.

Welcome to SnusCENTRAL.org and we’re glad you are here!

It’s a new day in America.

Sincerely,

The SnusCENTRAL Office of Information