In the first part of this short series I’ve written mostly about two very common cosmetological enhancements in use in Sweden: blond hair and orange skin. Now it’s time to peek a bit into other characteristic of mundane Swedish life.

Snuff. Banned in every other EU country, but Swedes managed to keep it. Main argument? Snuff is so tightly integrated into the culture that people can’t let snuff go. Actually banning it would probably decimate the population’s support for the EU. The threat obviously worked: EU restrictions on snuff succumb, Sweden joins the EU and population is pacified as they get to keep the snuff.

Even though I have no idea why has the EU decided to ban snus (as snuff is called around here). I actually see it as a much frendlier addiction than, for instance, cigarettes. The main reason being that everything that constitutes consumption stays most of the time between the cheeks and the gums of the user. Unlike the cigarettes where one happy face can make ten other grim. Alright, it might not pack enough vitamin C, but why doesn’t the EU then ban coffee? Or alcohol?

Anyway, whatever the reason for the ban, it sure sparked a gray market. At least in Finland catching snuff resellers every now and then makes the headlines. People buy it in Sweden and then resell it in Finland making a hefty profit. Funny enough, some of the snus producing companies will ship it to their Swedish customers living outside of Sweden. Although reliability of this service for the expatriates is spotty as packages sometimes get stuck in the customs, heavy snuff users told me.

But it is a big thing. So much so that Swedes even have a verb for it: snusa, to snuff. The act itself is a little less disgusting then the habit of chewing tobacco, which is spread mostly around the US. No spitting is involved and tobacco is packaged in tea-bag resembling tiny packets. Hence a word of warning: if you see any suspiciously small tea-bags laying around, don’t stick them into your tea-pot.

Nevertheless it’s not really tasty to see people pull those small, saliva drenched pouches out of their mouths and diligently store them in tiny containers they carry around in their pockets. But one thing I still have my mind wrapped around is this: Why in the world is one of the snuff brands called Göteborg Rapé (and contains white portion as a cherry on top)?

In the next edition we’re going to the pub.

Mladen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Culture, Politics, Sweden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.