NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo. . . !!!!

[bakerbarber]

It's easier to get prescriptions for drugs than it is to get tobacco!

[sirloot]

It's easier to get Illegal drugs than it is to get tobacco!

there fixed .. no charge

[kevs]

Ok got my 10 cans of Odens lakrits just now. They charged me 12.26 eur for customs fees and 6.50 eur for Estonian mail handling fees. And the good part was that although it was supposed to come with regular mail, they brought it right to my door. Total of 18.76 is not that bad but still I'll probably go to Sweden to buy some more snus in summer.

[Jan]

I know you got it. Wind changed direction today and is now blowing from the north filling Riga with a nice lakrits smell and I thought it must be you, very happy.
I am glad it all went well. These are reasonable fees but remember what precious007 established just a few days ago that we are not allowed to bring in more than 50 grams of whatever tobacco into the EU! (from outside of the EU i mean)

[kevs]

Hahaha, that's a good one!

But yeah, seems like our customs have not seen that directive yet, even on declarations paper there was written MOKATUBAKAS (snus in estonian). So I got lucky this time I guess.

[Jan]

Oh, you have a word in Estonian for snus! The only word for it that I knew up till now apart from "snus" itself of course was finnish "nuuska".
Most people here in Latvia don't know what snus is, I bet the customs guys would have to google it or look it up in Wikipedia to find out what fees/taxes apply. Snus is not listed as a tobacco product in our customs directory. They might have only charged me VAT on it if I ordered from the US.

[kevs]

That's right, direct translation of mokatubakas to english should be lip tobacco (mokk- lips in local slang, tubakas- tobacco). Snus is actually quite common in here, aprox 10 000 people use it, main consumers are in universities (including me) and ofcourse in army (almost everyone uses it in there ). Only bad thing is that the users are becoming more younger and younger, big part of them are still in high school. Few weeks ago police raided some schools in souther part of Estonia to find narcotics, tobacco etc, and they got some snus too. Funny thing is that the police said that their dogs can find snus too, so it's better not to use it in schools. At least I haven't heard that now we have drug detection dogs who can detect tobacco aswell, so I take this as a simple threat from police to students not to use any kind of tobacco.

[Jan]

I am not surprised at all that snus in popular there. Estonia is a nordic country, truly European (congrats on your Euro, btw). We are still a very much Russian country and our government is busy battling cigarette smuggling through our eastern border (so far without success though). Which way snus takes in Estonia depends on whether you align yourself with Finland or Sweden. I really do hope that you guys see snus is a symbol of belonging to the big viking family. This is what I had wished would happen in Latvia. Unfortunately the prospects of Latvia becoming a western nordic country have not materialized.
I have heard dogs are being used in Finland too to find illegal snus (illegal snus, how ridiculous that sounds), these creatures can be trained to search for anything. Funny thing is, you need to make a dog snus addict before and I am imagining a German shepard lying on a mat with a huge prilla under the upper lip.

[kevs]

Euro is bad, my friend, prices are skyrocketing. Last year same time average food basket containing regular things like milk, cheese etc was over 10 eur cheaper than now. Ok maybe it'll bring us more investments and rises our country security on international business market, but I as a regular citizen don't gain from it much right now, changes could be seen in next 10-20 years (if the euro zone doesn't collapse before). Cigarette smuggling is active here too, but it has decreased heavily, though I know that a lot of Estonians drive to Latvia to get cheaper cigarettes. Right now the goverment politics sees Finland as the "big brother" who should be an example for all of us, but it's understandable because of our historical connections, similar language and so on. But I'm afraid that Estonia itself can't do nothing about legalizing snus, decisions are being made much higher level.

[Snusdog]

I have heard dogs are being used in Finland too to find illegal snus (illegal snus, how ridiculous that sounds), these creatures can be trained to search for anything. Funny thing is, you need to make a dog snus addict before and I am imagining a German shepard lying on a mat with a huge prilla under the upper lip.

Hold on a second.................. let's not be too hasty about this

1) does the dog get to keep what he finds

and

2) where do I send my application

cause if the training involves lying around with a snus in.................baby I'm in top notch shape..................I am also proficient in beer, big tits, and bourbon

[Jan]

The situation is very interesting actually. Latvians living along the border to Estonia are going to Estonia for everything - groceries shopping, et cetera, even to have their hair cut, they prefer to do it in Estonia. Valka (a town in Latvia that directly borders Estonia) hardly gets by, there are almost no tax revenues, everyone works in Estonia, shops in Estonia and probably drinks in Estonia too. Valga, across the border in Estonia prospers because of this.
Euro will definately be still around in 20 years even if one or two countries drop out and it is good for you.. it would also be good for us.

The only support You can give snus right now is to use it. when health officials see that ailments that are down to smoking have decreased and the use of snus has not brought increase in any other tobacco related illnesses, and 10 000 snus users is quite a lot for a small country like Estonia, then you will be an example country, along with Sweden, of how effective harm reduction can work, even if snus itself does not come without risks.

[Jan]

Hold on a second.................. let's not be too hasty about this

1) does the dog get to keep what he finds

and

2) where do I send my application

cause if the training involves lying around with a snus in.................baby I'm in top notch shape..................I am also proficient in beer, big tits, and bourbon

I am rolling on the floor laughing. That sounds like everybody's dream job. I am afraid however the dogs are not allowed to keep what they find, they live a hellish life in fact, always craving something, always angry and unsatisfied. Otherwise, if they were happy would they always work when called in?

[kevs]

Yes it's true Valga and Valka are like one big city, but it's suprising that Latvians come to here to do their everyday shopping, prices in Latvia can't be higher than here, can they? And little offtopic: Thank you Latvians for giving us two excellent basketballers, Raimonds Vaikulis and Ivars Timermanis, they just helped my favourite team to beat BC Valga in Estonian championship play-offs!

[Jan]

Your welcome! Latvians are good at beating things!
and they make good guests workers in Estonia!
I am not sure about Tallinn, guess it has become quite an expensive city (it already was 5 years ago when I last went there) but Estonian countryside definately has lots to offer - reasonable prices, decent infrastructure and work places. People would not go there if it was the opposite.
Riga is the most expensive city to live in in the Baltics and this is official. This means living expenses of all sorts are higher, incl. groceries, healthcare, real estate of course, everything.