{"id":4754,"date":"2016-07-21T17:16:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T15:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2020-06-03T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T13:34:10","slug":"snus-how-to-be-swedish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/snus-how-to-be-swedish\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedes Prefer Snus over Cigarettes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Swedish<\/a><\/p>\n

People in countries from all over the world have addictions. Most of them are legal. Some eat smelly Cheese (Salut French), others smoke marihuana (looking at you Dutchies). Swedes on the other hand are addicted to something else…<\/p>\n

Swedes’ favorite addiction – apart from coffee<\/h2>\n

You might have noticed that some Swedes carry along a little round container in their pockets. It has roughly the size of an ice hockey puck or candy tin. What it contains is nothing sweet, but for many Swedes something that’s as much desirable as candy: snus<\/em><\/p>\n

Snus<\/strong> is Swedish for ‘snuff’ or ‘smokeless tobacco’.<\/em><\/p>\n

Swedes\u00a0either put the tobacco loosely portioned in the mouth or, if they don’t\u00a0want look around like a drooling dog while talking, insert small white pillows\u00a0that look like tiny tea-bags.<\/p>

\"Book<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/h3>\n

Snus privileges in Sweden<\/h3>\n

Snus\u00a0is actually forbidden to be sold in most EU-countries, but Sweden successfully received some extra selling-privileges due to heavy lobbying in Brussels.<\/p>\n

An argument pro snus\u00a0might have been: “If we stop selling snus in Sweden, people will smoke more, therefore they have to go out in the cold. Therefore they have to leave their desks during working hours. Therefore we loose\u00a01 billion Swedish crowns per year in GNP. The exact 1 billion we’ll request\u00a0from the EU to be subsidized. Do you EU-parliamentarians\u00a0want that?!” Problem solved. Snus sales legalized.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Snus consumption in Sweden<\/h3>\n

Roughly one in four Swedish men consume snus regularly. In average 3,5 tins per week. It’s more common than smoking, which about 14% of the Swedish people shorten their life-expectancy with.<\/p>\n

Snus talking<\/h3>\n

It’s totally common that a Swede – in the middle of a conversation – puts an indication finger into the mouth to remove a snus-bag and either puts it in an extra compartment for used snus-pillows<\/em> in the middle of the tin or just drops\u00a0it on the street. The latter disposal option is not recommended though.<\/p>\n

Snus is\u00a0also the reason why so many Swedes talk a bit weird. A snus-bag prevents their upper lip from moving freely. A good excuse for Swedes to speak even less than they normally do.<\/p>\n

Advantages of snus<\/h3>\n

To round things up, being addicted to snus has a few advantages (over being a smoker)<\/p>\n