how and when did you get startet on snus?

[cavy]

for my behalfe it startet on a nordic youth hunting and fishing trip to the swedish wilderness! we were 3 guys frome each following countires Denmark, Norway, Finland, Island and Sweden. on one of the trips out in the wilderness, me and 2 guys frome finland sat outsite at the fire talking all night. it was that night i first tried snus (not with alot of luck! :wink: ) but fun it was! lol then 6 years after that without snus, I meet some norwigians and they invited me to come and hunt with them, and one morning sitting after breakfast with "koge" coffe (stronge but great coffe) my friend pull out his snus box and made him self a great pris and asked if i wanted one aswell, i took up the challenge and said if he could show me how, i wouldent mind trying! and yeah what can i say! lol after that it kind of got habbit to use snus insted of smoking, when out hunting or fishing. and one year ago i started doing it full time and iv quited the cigs and my trustet pipe that iv smoked for many years! so that is my story on how i became a snus user! :wink:

whats your story?

Cavy

[Coffey]

Well I for one started using snus as a way to quit smoking. I just happened to be watching a show on the history chanel about tobacco, and the had a segment about snus. They talked about how safe it was compared to smoking, and it sparked my curiosity. I decided to look into it online, and that day I ordered my first roll. I even got my dad to stop smoking and he has been a smoker for 30 years. So, to anyone who says TV isn't good for anything, it helped me and my dad quit smoking

[phish]

The first time I tried it out was at a university lab in Tromso, Norway. The guy I was working with pulled out this little tub of soil-looking-stuff and proceeded to roll a bit of it into a cylinder and put it in his mouth. I asked him about it and he showed me how to use it. When I tried it, it nearly made me faint I couldn't believe how strong it was

I had seen snus before in norway but I didn't know what it was. In shops there were little fridges behind the counters which contained small tins. At first I thought it was shoe polish or something but why it was behind the counter and in a fridge I didn't know.

At the time I smoked, I immediately stopped and swapped over to general loose, which was the first one I tried. When I got back to England I started looking online for places to get it and the rest is history

That was all a couple of years ago and since then I have smoked a few times but don't touch normal tobacco any more.

I'll be interested to read other peoples stories.

[TBonehawk]

(this post originally appeared on snusforum.com, but has been slightly updated)

I first tried 'dip' when I was in university. I was visiting my friend at university in Los angeles. I put in a huge whack of my buddy's Skoal in my lower lip. Next thing I knew, my head was swimming. Talk about a buzz! I wasn't a smoker then so the nicotine was incredible. The tobacco was hard to keep in place, and I suppose I swallowed some. I stood up, the room shifted, and I went straight to the toilet to vomit.
Years later, I was studying in Spain - actually it was during the 94 World Cup - and hung out with a lot of Europeans on ERASMUS from my language classes. I noticed one of the Swedes, Dick, had a strange lump in his upper lip. I asked about it and he showed me his can of snus. At first, I said "No thanks. I had a bad experience with that stuff." He asked if I had meant with the American snuff, and I said yes. He said snus was different. Another night, weeks later, I decided to try it. It was in a yellow tin, so I suppose it was Ettan. He rolled me a prilla, and it wasn't bad, but I was really drunk so I couldn't appreciate it. It was different, though, and it didn't move around my mouth like the Skoal had.
Years after that, I had a painting job with my buddies. I was a smoker then, and you don't have to be a scientist to know that smoking doesn't mix with oil-based paints. Therefore, I dipped when I worked. This time, I put in my upper lip. I still had to spit (though less frequently), but that's how I could do it and not end up swallowing a ton of it. I had done that off and on occasionally for years when I was around them, or working on my car, but never habitually.
Fast forward to May 2006, when I quit smoking. I was playing disc golf to get my mind off not smoking, but at times I just felt like screaming - my guess was nicotine withdrawals, not crappy disc golf play. Plus, there is nothing inherently stressful about the sport. Then dip occured to me, so I started buying it. I was using Timber Wolf long cut because I had heard it was like Kodiak (my preferred dip from painting), but cheaper. I had been using it a couple of months, when I remembered my Swedish buddy and his snus. After a bit of online research, I found northerner.com and had some snus sent to me. That was October 2006, and I have been a snus user ever since.

TBone

[Cap'n SnusBeard]

I got tricked into it by a Norwegian! Not knowing what I was doing, and given the HUGE pris size, it all ended in a mudslide.

Luckily my experiences have all been a lot better since then.

[nzkiwi]

I had quit smoking using the patch and gum. However, I couldn't break my dependance to the nicotine gum and was on the verge of smoking again. I decided that if I was going to go back to tobacco, snus would be the logical choice. I had been using U.S dip(skoal,T-wolf,etc) but couldn't stand the spitting thing(unpractical). On top of that my girlfriend absolutely hated the spittons lying around the apartment. The rest is history.

[Subtilo]

Im just gonna repost my first experience:

The first time I tried snus was in Reykjavik a few years ago. I got drunk with a swedish guy and at some point during our brilliant conversation about the big whateverness, he presented this little black box (surely General) containing a bunch smelly bags. Sure, I knew what it was - I've got swedish relatives and my grandpa used to snus too - it had just never crossed my mind to try it out. Before this drunken showdown in Iceland. And so I did. Punched it up my lip and whipped down another whiskey and waited. A few burning minutes later I was sailing. It was perfect with the whiskey, I loved it, drank some more and kept 'playing' with the little bag of taste. Until I suddenly got very, very sick and had to step outside and yell at the ground ...

One year later or so, I decided to try snus again and got hold of a box of Göteborgs Rapé. Not being completly wasted this time made me deal with it in a more suitable way, and surprise, surprise, this was good! Not a single cigaret since! Or maybe a couple, I dunno, I still get drunk sometimes, you know 8)

[TBonehawk]

Man, I've heard my share of colorful ways to describe puking, but "yell at the ground" is one I will have to remember! I love it!

[gopherbob]

I saw the singer of meshuggah 'dipping' when they came for the Hellraisers Ball. I later found out that he was actually using snus and my girlfriend bought me some for christmas.

[cavy]

lol gopherbob.....that is a nice girlfriend you have! if my girls ran dowen and bought me snus i would take them/her to the hills, so no other guy would be able to snatch her frome me! :lol:

then the run down for snus, would keep her fit! :P

Cavy on the General

[chainsnuser]

For me, it was, that I wanted to quit smoking and tried Nicorette gums. But the gums didn't work well - the nicotine (if they content "real" nicotine at all - I'm not sure) was too low and I kept smoking a few cigarettes every day for about a month. Also, my mouth sometimes aked terribly from too much chewing.

Then I started to "google" for chewing tobacco (the only cigarette-substitute, that came to my mind) and found dip, snus and several kinds of chewing tobacco.

After some research, I found snus to be probably the best substitute for me and gave it a try. Since december 2, 2006 when my fist snus-order arrived, I'm a snuser. The rest (and also the cigarettes ) is now history for me. In fact, I smoked 3 cigarettes since December 2, 2006 - the last in the middle of january - only to find out, that I really don't like it anymore.

The first time, I heard of snus, was during my military-service, back in the 80's in northern Germany (Bremen, a bit closer to Sweden, than my hometown Dortmund), when I had a conversation with some comrades, about our smoking habit - and a few of them mentioned snus and were quite excited about it. Unfortuantely, all of them kept smoking and none had any snus, that I could have tried. So, unfortunately, I kept smoking for about 20 years

[TBonehawk]

Yeah, that Nicorette gum is awful shite. I've tried it myself. Tastes awful, and requires jaws like a bear trap.

[mwood72]

Yeah Nicroette gum is nasty. It takes like chewing on a paracetamol to me. I think if the only other option than smoking was the gum I would just try to quit nicotine all together. Maybe that's why they make it taste so nasty?

[cavy]

tried gum only once and never again! :shock: how could it be they dont make something that works!

[TBonehawk]

I have a feeling that the gum 1) is not very effective; and 2) tastes like ass is likely (and this is personal speculation) due to it being a product of the tobacco companies. I am sure the judgments against them required them to fund research and products to help smokers quit. A great way of ensuring that smokers don't quit is by introducing and marketing a product that is only marginally effective (mostly due to its awful taste). To make a true go of quitting requires a resolve to use the gum - any level of resolve great enough to endure the gum would likely be effective without the gum. Does that make sense?