Always at the cutting edge of social developments, those pale, smug Scandinavians have come up with the perfect alternative to cigarette smoking: snus

National Review, Sept 27, 2004

* Always at the cutting edge of social developments, those pale, smug Scandinavians have come up with the perfect alternative to cigarette smoking: snus. That's right, snus. Snus is a snuff-like powder made from tobacco, sealed in a hygienic pouch like a tiny tea bag. You insert it under your upper lip.

As with chewing tobacco in the U.S., snus was once favored only by working-class males. With widespread bans on smoking, though, snus usage has moved up the social scale, with sales in Norway rising 15 percent last year and about one in ten young male Norwegians now confirmed snus-users. To assist their product's social ascent, snus makers have modernized and sanitized their product, flavoring it with cranberry, orange, or mint, and marketing it in feminine-looking white or pink cans. (No doubt prompting more traditional-minded users to repine: "Where are the snus of yesteryear?") Well, as far as we are concerned, no snus is good snus; but with smoking bans spreading in the U.S., our own tobacco firms had better get moving with some similar product before the Scandinavians corner the market. As they say in Ornskoldsvik and Lillehammer: You snus, you lose.