Snus is snus..

 

  • After some problems with the European Union, it now looks like Sweden may keep its flavored “snus” or snuff. The final decision is expected to come on Friday. Above portioned snus by the Swedish brand General Photo: Alekos

  • Snus is snus..
    The power over "snus" or snuff will remain with Sweden. That's the message the Swedish people is expected to receive on Midsummer's Eve from the health ministers of the European Union countries. The EU commission has demanded what sort of flavor additives may be included in cigarettes and snuff, but in negotiations with other countries the Swedish government has now gotten support not to let the EU have any influence over the content of snuff, since Swedish snus is not to be sold in other EU countries than Sweden anyway.
    Swedish snus is available in stores all over the United States and on mail order through suppliers such as http://www.snusdirect.com/

  • “It looks like snuff can be the exemption from the flavor rule,” one EU source says. The EU commission wants to decrease the tobacco companies’ possibilities to lure young people and women to start smoking or using snuff with the help of additives like licorice, vanilla, mint, citrus, eucalyptus, or cranberries – all of which lessen the tobacco taste. The Swedish government was prepared to accept a European Union regulation of the content of snuff, provided the export ban of snuff was lifted. But since almost all countries have rejected the Swedish requirement, the government’s policy has been to not have the content of snuff decided on a EU level. The minister in charge of this, Maria Larsson, courted the EU’s health commissioner Tonio Borg last week for an exchange: Sweden’s taking back their suggestion of an export ban in order to get green light for an exemption.
    However, the governmental negotiators are still not completely satisfied. They want clearer language that the EU commission won’t intervene with the contents of snuff in the future. The exact wording will be decided at a meeting with the health ministers in Luxemburg on Friday. The government, however, has not received any support for its demand that there’s to be no increase beyond the current 50% in the warning labels on the packaging.
    The EU commission had suggested that three quarters of the packages were to be filled with warning texts and deterrent images, and the compromise now is 70%. According to the Swedish government’s legal experts, there has to be a constitutional amendment for such a rule in Sweden, since it can be interpreted as a restriction of freedom of speech for the tobacco companies.

  • Snus is snus...
    Men strunt är strunt och snus är snus
    om ock i gyllne dosor
    och rosor i ett sprucket krus
    är ändå alltid rosor.
    - From "Idealism och realism" Gustaf Fröding (1860-1911)