You heard it right. I have been using the snus nicotine pouches that have hit the shelves of our major retailers, online stores, and local convenience stores for fifteen years. I’ve seen the market move from a niche, unknown product with few brands and product variations to what it is now. I speak to many people about snus and their experience using it as a daily product. Interestingly, despite being frequent snus users, their lack of knowledge surprises me. It led me to think that I would serve as a candidate for elucidating the benefits of snus over my tenure so far. If you are interested in learning all there is to know about snus effects in real life, not hypothetically, you have come to the right place.
Introduction to Snus Benefits: A new user experience
Using snus for the first time was one of the most surreal moments. In 2009, when I tried my first snus, the experience could be called turbulent, for want of a better word. Back then, I had never heard of snus, but I was a frequent smoker who regularly smoked ten cigarettes a day. The smoking indoors ban had been enacted only a couple of years prior. Most of the smoking community made adjustments, but I, on the other hand, could still be found smoking out of the window of public toilets! The old habits die hard phrase comes to mind. Nonetheless, my first snus was offered after a meal at Nando’s. I remember the Siberia Snus packaging and was warned that it was strong. Long story short, it was so strong that I fell asleep at the dining table; such were the relaxation benefits.
Over the next few weeks, I spent considerable time sourcing more snus products. Websites were available to purchase from, but they were all abroad. The problem was the delivery times were between a week and three weeks. As a person addicted to nicotine in the form of smoking traditional cigarettes, it was easier to buy a pack of ten in the local convenience store. So, the combination of using both snus and cigarettes began.
The Benefits of Thinking Smart
At first, I had not considered the possibility of using snus as an alternative to smoking. Initially, I thought it would be quite an excellent product to use in public places. How wrong I was. Had I correctly quantified the effects of snus on my smoking habits, I would have bought more. Therein lies the first mistake I made when starting my snus journey: not buying enough to use frequently. Buying a pack of cigarettes back then would cost around £3. Buying a can of snus was around £3.50 by the time you factored in the shipping from some obscure part of the world. You could buy a sleeve of ten snus for around £30. But, as an inexperienced snus user, spending £30 seemed crazy. I would happily give a store £3 daily rather than pay a lump of £30 up front.
Within the first few weeks of using snus, there was a time when the product morphed from a luxury product to a necessity. Cigarettes were a necessity, and so I would be prepared to spend whatever I had to ensure I had what I needed. I had not realised the same about snus.
My purchasing tendencies impacted my snus cycling and pocket. At some point during the later months of 2009, I bought one sleeve of snus for £30 online. It wouldn’t be until the mid-2010s that I managed to quit smoking and was spending £90 a month on snus. It sounds like a lot, but with the rising price of cigarettes, it was great timing. In hindsight, the small orders of one and two cans during my first year had cost me considerably. If I had accepted that snus would be part of my daily life, I would have saved a lot of money. That is the first rule of engagement for new users: Buy in bulk and save money. In comparison with smoking, snus is a cheap and safer way to consume nicotine. Providing you know how to prepare correctly for your intake, you can spend your savings elsewhere!
Financial Benefits of using Snus over Smoking
Apart from the general positive effects of quitting smoking, the financial benefits were huge. In 2010, approximately £4 was spent on a packet of ten cigarettes. Through one year, my annual spend would be somewhere near £1500 after you factor in the occasional night out with the lads. If you smoke and go clubbing, you know how it feels to have to double your pack day to provide nicotine relief under the effects of alcohol. In hindsight, the cost of smoking traditional cigarettes has always been damaging to any average human!
If memory serves me well, the average wage in the UK in the early 2010s was around £18000 a year. When you factored in taxes, the average take home would have been around £1250. So, for those that smoked, they were spending approximately 10% of their monthly income on smoking. Not a healthy figure for something that damages your lungs and is proven to be a primary cause of cancer.
Against 2024 figures, using a can of snus a day would set you back around 3.5% of your annual salary. That is if you earned the UK minimum wage. Smoking the same amount daily would set you back nearly five times that amount. The financial benefits of snus against smoking are incomparable.
Outside of the Positive Financial Gains
Nicotine is an addictive substance, from whatever perspective you look at it. But, for those people who have already embarked on using nicotine, it is one of the safest forms so far. I have read so much information in the past year about the potential adverse effects of snus. Yet, there have been no studies that have conclusively demonstrated any illnesses related to snus use. Sweden has quietly gone about supplying snus to users for decades, and yet they have one of the lowest cancer rates on the planet.
The negative press that has condoned footballers for using snus is crazy. Nobody says anything when a football club wins a trophy and sprays champagne over players like it is water. But Jamie Vardy walks out of training with a can of Thunder, and all hell breaks loose. Glorifying the use of alcohol (which incurs heavy UK taxes) is okay, but snus, is a problem? The same could be said about vaping.
Nonetheless, I managed to quit smoking, saving myself thousands. I also probably gave myself a few more years in the bank by not polluting my lungs with any more tar. But, interestingly, it was in the diversity of benefits that I saw the most positives about snus. It’s a pretty strange statement to make, so let me clarify.
Mental Focus Benefit
Snus lets me tune into my thoughts while studying, working, or watching something engaging. There is a calm that waves the mind with a good snus. It is unbeatable, especially in the mornings or late at night. The body seems to relax, and the brain appears to calm just enough to allow thoughts to be vivid in presentation. I have read similar reports from users in various posts on social media.
Athletic Focus Positives
Before the negative press over the past three years or so, if you went to a local football match, you would likely see snus pouches strewn over the pitch. I would line up against defenders and see their gums bulging with a pouch in their upper lip. Notice how I called it athletic focus, as opposed to athletic performance. When I played football, I never felt that snus gave me an extra run or extra pace. But, I did find that these pouches did a lot for me to be present. Sometimes, the crowd would be disgruntling, especially at vociferous stadiums. But, when I walked out from the tunnel with a snus in my gum, I felt zoned into the match. And the effects would last at least twenty minutes. One before the game and one at halftime ensured I was focused for at least half of the match!
Sleeping Benefits
Probably the primary snus benefits have been, and remain to be, in sleeping. I have always struggled to sleep because of my mind. I spend much of the day with my mind racing. At night, when I pop my last snus while in bed, I am straight to sleep. So much so that there have been multiple mornings when I woke up with snus in bed; that is the first rule of the final snus of the day: Always remember to take it out before you sleep! But, the relaxation in the dark, as you lay down to sleep, is one of the best I have ever felt. So, for those of you that have been using Headspace, Calm, and the rest of those apps: Grab a Cuba or Killa and ring me in the morning!
Snus Benefits: A Positive Addition to the UK Nicotine Market
Snus is subjective in terms of effects, so I can only share my experience after so many years. The consumption of nicotine, however, is both addictive and potentially harmful in whatever form. I am in no way condoning the use of snus for no reason. I only write to inform you how the use of snus has allowed me to banish one of the world’s greatest killers – cigarettes. The mainstream media will talk about long-term effects and hypothesize potential pitfalls. Well, I am 15 years deep, and I have seen mainly positives.
Perhaps, if there was one thing to see as a negative in the snus market, It is still the consumption of nicotine. I am not naive enough to think that nicotine is good; if I had the choice, I would have never used a nicotine product, period. However, for perspective, if I were to cut everything that was media-accepted, things would be pretty bleak. Imagine having no burgers, no fries, no alcohol, no takeaways, no chocolate, no sweets. Wow. Oh, I forgot, even chickens have issues these days (yawn)!
And, if you want to know where you can save the most money, alongside the best new products, you know we got you covered at Snusboys.
