I'm Free ....!

 Nicotine free. Un fucking believable! After forty years of smoking, I gave up the fags and turned to Snus. After a year on Snus ..... I've been off That since this year.

 It's all down to " Phil' ". Philomena. Landlady of my local. Most sweet and caring woman I've ever known. Having had that pig flu' for a week, from new years day, I'd not been near the snus for a week, I guess.

 Mentioned this, in passing, to Phil', just as casual conversation. Only, she misconstrued what I was getting at. I'd Never intended snus as a way off smoking, let alone off nicotine altogether.

But, she took it that I was saying I was clean. I'd won some fight I'd never even considered myself in. She clasped her hands together and looked at me like ..... I don't know. But it broke my heart, right there, to think I could ever disappoint her.

 That day, I knew, I could never put even snus in my mouth again. Never have.

Gave what I had left to Dean O'. Never ordered my regular quota. Just 'Got over it'.

  Funny as fuck, actually. I'd drain the last suck from a mug of tea? ' Snus!!!! '. The urge would slam into me like a train! And be gone, just as fast.

  Weird little shit, like that. Like how a smoker will push their plate away and reach for their fags, automatically. Little things would make me 'Need' snus.

 Even going out my gate. It triggered the response of getting all the way up the track, going to chat with Pat'. Then realising I'd left my 'baccy at home. Couldn't possibly relax and chat without a fag. Forgetting my snus was the same.

Now? Those 'Flash Back', split second moments have lessened to the point where I really can't remember the last time I even had one.

My name is Ditch Shitter. I no longer need, nor crave, nicotine. I'm free.

Snus .....

No. It's not a typo or an acronym. Perhaps it is a Swedish word though? I'm really not sure. What ever. Sweden appears to be the epicentre of it. And I'm going to get some.

In a nut shell; Snus is a medium through which one can gain the nicotine which smokers, such as myself, 'die for'. Yet the impact on ones health is probably about on a par with drinking coke ..... No. Scrub that. I wouldn't drink coke! I suspect Snus is safer.

So, it's a 'Medium' ? Well, sort of Mild, Medium and Strong, really. Comes in all sorts of strengths, flavours, even several forms. But, it's basically tobacco. (Hear me out!) Tobacco is a plant. It synthesises a chemical we call Nicotine. Nicotine could kill ye, stone dead on the spot, if ye ingested a small amount of the pure stuff. Of course, so could Parsley.

But, we smokers are addicted to nicotine. Not parsley or it's chemical constituents. In fact, at the levels we consume nic', it doesn't really matter. It's the other shit we take in, as we inhale the chemical morass formed by setting fire to the nic' harbouring vegetation ~ And the vile concoction of additives they lace the raw vegetation with, simply in order to make it all burn at an acceptably uniform and convenient rate!

In short then? Nicotine addicts smokers. Actually more strongly than Heroin does Smack Heads, believe it or not! But, nicotine doesn't kill smokers. The shit we go through to get that 'fix' does.

Back to Snus then. Snus is tobacco ~ Pay attention at the back! ~ hard to get nic' without that plant. Only, ye don't burn and inhale its smoke. Ye don't chew it. Ye don't even sniff it up ye nose. No. Ye just poke it under ye top lip! :o I shit ye not!

First uproar? " No Fucking WAY am I shoving a gram of cigarette tobacco under my lip! " Err ..... No one's suggesting ye do, mate. That'd be on a par with 'Chewing Tobacco'. That stuff can seriously fuck up ye face.

No. Can we please just forget all about " Tobacco ", as we think of it? Tobacco is just a plant. So is Barley. Do one load of things with Barley? Add things? Ye get beer. Do and add other things? Whiskey. Or even refreshing Robinsons Barley Water. Just so the tobacco plant. One treatment creates cigarettes. Another cigars. A certain way gets ye snus.

Put brutally simply? About 50% water. 5% Salt. The rest made up out of 'baccy and what ever flavourants and the odd thing to make it all come together? That's snus, in laymans terms.

Well, anyway, I'm gonna get some. From Here.

I'm Not trying to give up smoking. Given up trying to give up, decades ago. But, having used Snuff before, I know how an alternative source of Nicotine can drastically cut down on ones need to actually Smoke. This is 90% economics ~ Snus works out cheaper ~ and a passing nod to the fact that I'm simply too fucked to even fuck. I could use some breath.

No soap box then. Not evangelising or proselytising. Just bringing up something else that has caught my notice and which might be of some interest to some others reading this shit.

Week or two and I'll likely be telling ye what I make of the actual stuff; Snus.