As a Scandinavian it's pretty wild seeing snus talked about as this "mystery" product. In Norway it's about twice as prevalent as smoking in the general population.
As a german too. But with you Scandinavians it's another matter. With you, it's already a cultural commodity. I used to buy a lot from you because it was forbidden in Germany. But I never noticed it in the Bundesliga. In ice hockey in Germany, however, you see players all the time taking a snus on the bench.
It seems ridiculous for me too and I’m from Finland edit for context: this kind of short documentary should be made from elementary school children using snus not adults 😁
As an Aussie I have only ever seed it as a black market product being sold, or from working along side Euro's in the maritime industry, plenty of Ukrainians, Poles and Germans bring it over here that I work with.
As a swede I find snus quite fascinating. I never tried it because I saw my dad use it daily when I grew and I realized how hooked he was, then I also learned to dislike the smell of it. But it's very normalized here in Sweden and for many people seem as a great substitute for smoking.
@@MrBadlandabad in UK English, the term “swede” is used to refer to what is also called a rutabaga or sometimes “Swedish turnip” The person was saying that the original comment said “As a swede” (no capitalization) and that made them think of the term for a rutabaga instead of Swedish people
As a Swede hearing snus being talked about as a scandalous thing that people don't want to talk about publicly is really strange. Imagine being from the UK and watching a Swedish documentary about tea, with the narrator saying things like "In Sweden an alarming trend of people drinking a dangerous drug called tea is on the rise, with some Swedish people even drinking tea in public. Recently, a Swedish football player was seen in public holding a bag of Earl Grey. Tea drinkers were afraid of appearing in this documentary for fear of losing sponsorships." That's what watching this video is like for a Swede.
100 % agree on this. And it's not more performance enhancing than a cigarette. It has actually been shown to reduce your sense of balance, but it has also been shown to increase you reaction time. So for a footballer I would doubt it has any performance enhancing benefits.
Snus helped me quit smoking and eventually nicotine altogether. I went from smoking, to using snus then eventually started using "all white" tobacco free snus (nicotine pouches). Eventually I was able to buy ones with less nicotine and quit completely. I will say though, for a portion of that time though I was using very high nicotine snus because it's easy to build up your tolerance. This was mostly due to the fact that snus can be conveniently done in most places that cigarettes cant which make it easy to overuse and build up a nicotine tolerance with. Compounding this since you put the pouch in your upper lip instead of lower it stays dry and you can even eat and drink with it in without any issues. Overall I have quite a positive opinion on it for people who already smoke but if you aren't addicted to nicotine already then there really is no point to begin anyways.
as an American who grew up in baseball and ice hockey, you saw chewing/dipping tobacco constantly and they are very similar products. Mainly, most athletes (that I know) who use it just do so as a way to satisfy the nicotine craving, but not hurt their lungs/breathing. To quote an old teammate, "it's a lot easier to get new teeth" and I would bet a similar attitude is real prevalent elsewhere
@@morre6894 your relative risks of cancer are roughly the exact same with snus as they are with chewing tobacco and dip. Stop spreading misinformation it is not safer
@@bigfish3846 Yeah but this argument you're trying to make is equating a nicotine addiction with a nicotine addiction that also kills you. There's an insanely huge difference
As a swede I find it very funny when people talk about snusing as something only done within athletics, it's so common in sweden that you can find it more easialy than cigarettes, because any place that sells food sells snus. In Sweden it's also very widespread, about half of my friends including me do it.
@@bassofd00mDepends on what you mean with good. It is obviously bad for your health but it makes u relaxed in the beginning but the more frequent and longer you take it you will not get that feeling anymore. Only the feeling of wanting to take it regularly.
Snus is readily available in Denmark and I used it for a couple months before I had enough. It's super easy to get addicted to and escalate usage since it's so easy to very quickly put a pouch under your gum and continue about your day instead of having to go outside to smoke or vape.
Using snus is really normal here in Norway. It’s very popular amongst teens and lots of my friends use it daily and gets desperate if they can’t get their hands on it. Seeing it portrayed as a mysterious booster for professional footballers is wierd
I'm English but currently live in Sweden and even though i'm used to seeing it now, Snus addiction is pretty crazy. I know people who use Snus when they sleep and they will wake up in the night to change it, plus it's also not uncommon to see people pop a pouch in their mouth *the second* they've finished their last mouthful of lunch/food. One moment i'll never forget is when I was at an afterwork at the office with my boss and he had run out of snooze, he turned and looked at me and said "ok, don't judge me for this" and proceeded to roll up a small ball of kitchen roll and placed it under his top gum, "this will help for the moment" he said.
So is coffee, so is sugar. I took a look at the big study in Sweden about throat cancer, the side with no snus use was like 30k participants and 8 or 9 throat cancer cases. The side with snus use was like 30k participants and 13 or 14 throat cancer cases. They then said it 30 or 40% more likely to have cancer, nah, its not, its in the variance of that case. Big misunderstanding how statistics work or how many things make you dependent of something, and this video is proof of bad journalism...
@@ivy8483 Not as bad as other tobacco/nicotine sources. Some snus taste really good aswell, unlike cigarettes and people won't be affected by your addiction unlike cigs.
@@MattFuller-eh6cw We dont really use "dip" or products similar to that in Finland. Except "loose snus" is pretty close to dip as far as i understand. We mainly use real Swedish snus or nowadays nicotine pouches. These typically range from 12 to 30mg of nicotine / portion. I dont think Copenhagen is a relevant brand in the Nordics, its probably a Yankee brand with no real relations to real snus companies
There might be a bit of confusion about it's illegality. There is snus and there are nicotine pouches - in the EU, one is illegal while the other is completely fine. Only difference is that snus contains actual parts of the tobacco plants while the pouches have either synthetic or clean extracted nicotine. Both have the same effects. Most europeans including footballers usually use the legal variant from my experience.
As a Swede, I have to point out that I would assume a lot of footballers use the nicotine only pouches and not snus with tobacco and nicotine. Since the tobacco ones are illegal in all EU member states except for Sweden (maybe some other exceptions also). And the nicotine ones aren’t as bad for a persons health. That said, these are nowhere near as bad as cigarettes etc. But they could be bad for the footballers physical fitness/conditioning.
It's illegal to sell it in the UK but it's not illegal to use it. I'm not sure what the restrictions are exactly on importing it on your person (for personal use) however i've had it in my luggage on numerous occasions (when travelling from Sweden to the UK) and have never had an issue. But yes it's easier for them to get the tobacco free pouches so they probably use them.
There are still ways to get it in the UK- I've come across some Twitter accounts that advertise that they have some to sell in the UK (and this is the tobacco based stuff, not the nicotine pouches). Also it's not illegal to buy it from non-EU sources- there's an Israel-based website that ships snus back to the EU. I live in the Channel Islands and the Sweden-based snus sellers are happy to post their stuff to me. I need to stop using it though... going to this year.
@@morre6894 that’s a complete misconception actually. They have less trace contaminants, but that doesn’t translate to harm reduction. Studies have been done on this. Also either way all tobacco is bad for you
@@davidshatto7604 They actually had to change the labels here in Sweden becuase they couldn´t prove that the SWEDISH snus and cancer was correlated. However the research on that gets updated all the time, my point wasn´t about it being good but to highlight that the american "version" is way worse.
I've used snus for roughly 9 years. It hasn't done my health any service, but it has helped me through episodes and long stretches of time of high stress. Snus isn't a preformance enhancing drug, it's cigs you can use without bothering anyone else with smoke or smell. The health issues that may come are for you and you alone to bear, unlike second hand smoking.
"The health issues that may come are for you and you alone to bear" Also, for our health care systems dealing with more unnecessary cancer and other health problems because of its use. This will only perpetuated further by feeding societal acceptance of harmful products. It's basically 1 step backwards for getting people to quit smoking.
@@RefnResthat can also be said about people stuffing themselves with sugary drinks or eating high calories meals everyday. are we going to shame people who are obese just as we are to smokers? Where does it end?
@@RefnRes As far as I understand there hasn't actually been proven how cancerous it is, although users seem more likely to get cancer in their throat or gums. It is nevertheless much less harmful than smoking.
Not entirely true, yes there are no ‘second hand’ smoke sufferers to those who snus, however, it is a substance that contributes (at least here in sweden where I have worked within the healthcare sector for the last 15+ years) to the ever growing burden placed upon the healthcare system due to complications associated with prolonged exposure to nicotine (patients with diabetes suffer more than most). Where individuals have the attitude that it is a much better alternative to smoking so it’s ok (=false). Not to mention the other unspoken point about just how much littering/harm is caused by those little pouches of used snus that people will simply flick out from under the lip out onto the ground. It is rife and disgusting.
It's been quite a big thing in the last few years in Switzerland as well. I used to buy one box per week and I was really addicted many times consuming 4-5 a day (I am aware that some people consume much more). I still consume snus sometimes when I'm offered a bag but I stopped buying full boxes about 2 months ago and I have to say it's not that easy not having the nicotine flash
@@bengtsondanilo Yes, you're right, it's good for boredom. I have always ordered from Sweden here to Germany. Is there actually any country that even comes close to you in terms of snus production? Your neighbouring countries?
its wild seeing comments like this talking about it like its something new. mate its just tobacco in a pouch. dip, vapes, cigarettes, cigars. they all give you the same effect in a different form. i really dont get why people are treating it like its something different.
@@newp0rt You mean my comment? If so, of course I realise that it is a normal nicotine product that has been around for ages. Only in the video it is presented as if it were a new phenomenon. That's why I wrote that it doesn't helped at football because it increases the heartbeat unnecessarily. Of course, the same applies to all other tobacco products.
People don’t realise just how much this stuff is used within football, you watch a game on TV easily at least a 3rd of the players on the pitch have one in right there and then
I’m shocked by this. I have been using them for around 6 months to quit smoking and I find my cardio ability with one in is significantly worse than without (obviously) but to be playing a football match with one in is crazy, it’s like trying to cycle whilst smoking a cig.
@@ibraheemmonks8866 yeah their (footballers) very high levels of fitness somewhat mask the problems of nicotine use If anything, that can mean that they use it in greater amounts because some of the side effects are diminished by being in tip-top shape Being very fit will do nothing for preventing the possible effects of cancer, sleep deprivation, and increased risk of mental breaks from its use
In football, I think maybe 10 per cent in the top leagues. You rarely see a player spit out something brown. First you spit brown spit and then you spit the snus out. Never saw this in football on the pitch. And nobody leaves a snus inside for 45 minutes. And if they did, they would be spitting brown juice the whole time. That would be noticeable. In hockey there are always changes and interruptions where you can dispose of it. In hockey, 85 per cent use it in Europe, especially Scandinavia. You see players on the bench all the time shoving snus in their mouths. All the good brands come from there, too. I used to order there often.
I'm from Sweden and my doctor recommended snus as a way to quit smoking - and it worked! Not had a cigarette in 8 years. My doctors reasoning was that cigarettes is linked to increased risk for 30+ diseases, many of them fatal. When it comes to snus he said that it increases risk for a handful of diseases. So by switching from cigarettes to snus I decreased my risk for 25 diseases! It's very addicting though, but god I do love it.
@@alexandersamson5866 nicotine in an isolated environment is not that bad for you and research isn’t clear on if it’s carcinogenic at all. It’s many, many times better for you than cigarettes. Cigarettes have dozens of carcinogens beyond nicotine
Well if you do the research Swedish snus doesn’t cause cancer and have never been related to death. Swedish tobacco is curated with water stem unlike American tobacco which is curated by burning with causes tarr to release which causes cancer. Also snus and nicotine pouches are totally different
We call it “dip” this one kid on my high school’s baseball team did it all the time. The coaches knew it too but didn’t say anything because he was a top prospect
Here in Europe I think 90 percent of the Scandinavian hockey player use it. It’s very huge in Scandinavia. Also in Germany I know many people who use it
don’t know about baseball but I would imagine that since ice hockey is extremely popular in Scandinavia, all the Scandinavians who come to the NHL or even for college or high school in the US bring it with them and show their teammates. I have a conspiracy theory that John Guidetti, failed Swedish wonderkid, brought it with him to Man City around 10 years ago when they signed him and it’s never left since.
I remember going to Sweden a few years ago and bringing back a few pots to the UK. I liked it back then (not now), but none of my mates were interested in trying it. So I'm surprised to hear that there are a quite few players in the various leagues using it, given it's not something a lot of people usually do. Still better than drinking or gambling though.
@@l_b_xd5313 Snus really isn't. Literally 25% of the population use it here in Sweden and we have had decades of research on it showing little correlation to things like throat cancer while having one of the most healthy populations in the world. If 25% of the population meanwhile where alcoholics or smoking the life expectancy would have dropped by several years. This whole video is just bad journalism. Heck, he doesn't even know the difference between nicotine poaches (what is actually being used by these football players) and snus.
As a Swede I've been using snus since I was about 11-12, it's bad on paper but in my case I've always dealt with much heavier addiction so the snus has almost become ok and I've never really thought of quitting.
I'm swedish and both my father, auntie and youngest cousin (23) and many more people i know or have seen are users of Snus. It can be bought in almost every store and some big places like big trainstations, shopping centers and airports will probably have nicotine shops stacked with mostly Snus. Its basically a part of Swedish culture and I myself haven't noticed any side effects, but maybe you have to be a viking to handle it :)
Here in Scandinavian countries, snus for footballers is like regular chewing gum. Don't be surprised if you see Ødegaard and Haaland using it, just saying. It's no big deal for footballers who grew up in Nordic countries. English media likes to make it look like it's the new dope to be worried about. Same league that threw a fuss over a neck warmer and got it banned. Now imagine trying to ban a neck warmer in colder countries like Norway, Iceland, Sweden or Finland. Never happening here. 😅
I wouldn't put a neck warmer on the same level as putting highly concentrated nicotine right onto your soft tissue and membrane, surely you must see that it could be problematic, especially for top level athletes that are extremely challenged every week on a physical level
Yeah cos nicotine products being sold to children and cancer being cut out of peoples gum due to snus is no big deal, just the English media overreacting of course, wish we could be as perfect as your scandis
Its actually been available (a very similar legal product) in mainstream shops in britain for about a decade but it never really took off, it was mainly scanidnavians who used it
As a Norwegian who regularly uses snus, I can say that it will not increase performance, but can help to relax better and will not have an impact on health like crisps, chocolate and soft drinks. Which I think is why it is popular with football players. It is very common in Scandinavia (especially Norway and Sweden, where its fully legal to consume and selll). I saw a picture on Elneny's story once of Martin Ødegaard who obviously used it on the plane. In Norway, it is also not allowed to write that snus "is harmful to health and carcinogenic" on the box, because research cannot prove that it is actually carcinogenic. Instead, it says on the box "it can(!) be harmful to health and addictive".
@@Stef_FPL this is wrong. Snus with tobacco existsnin sweden. Snus without tobacco does have nicotine, just not tobacco. So its not carcinogenic. This is legal in some eu countries. There is a large difference in the tobacco free ones and those with tobacco. This video should have discussed this
Fun fact: Moomin character Snufkin is called Nuuskamuikkunen (Nuuska = Snus, Muikkunen is a surname) in Finnish and Snusmumriken (Snus = Snus, Mumrik(en) is a type of troll in Moomins) in Swedish. Also: it doesn't matter whether or not Chelsea fc will hire him as their next manager - he will leave in the autumn anyway.
Snusa is also a word for snoring/sniffle/sleeping/relaxing/the period of time before you fall asleep back in the day. I even heard people saying it when i was younger to refer to a sleeping child. "Olof ligger och snusar" . When it comes to mumindalen there is also a character named "sniff" so i think it's more likely that the connection isn't from the tobacco product and more to do with the "sleepy" "sniffle" "snort" meaning. Finnish and Swedish has a lot of shared vocabulary stemming from the fact that it has basically been the same country for hundreds of years.
If the players are not getting warned of the health risks with snus there is a problem. In Sweden snus is used by most footballers and theres no big deal, but here everyone knows the health risks.
Recently went to Turkey on holiday and met some really lovely Swedish people. As a Brit and a long term vaper, they introduced me to snus. Since using it my breathing and cardio has improved by a substantial amount. Also it isn’t a banned substance in the uk anymore, you can buy it freely. Also the medical research around causing any cancer is pretty loose with a lot of journals using terms such as ‘possibly causing’ ‘can cause’ etc. all in all, for me personally, it’s been brilliant to wean me off vapes, feel healthier and it’s more cost effective.
There are snus that has no tobacco in it which have had a rise in Sweden for the last 4-5 years. Its much cleaner for the teeth but I think it is to new to say if it's better from a health perspective. But all of my snusing friends have change to the "white snus" without tobacco. @@memestrous
Snus is a traditional product since hundreds of years in Sweden, which we are very proud of as it is a part of our cultural history and a common sight in most families since generations back. I'd like to add that most probably the "Snus" discussed in this video is not actual snus made from tobacco, but a tobacco free alternative containing only nicotine and plant fiber material with flavouring. As by EU-law, tobacco snus is not allowed to sell in the European Union except Sweden. Tobacco free snus however is legal to sell and that is what we see the footballers use. Plenty of shops and distributers in England, France and recently southern europe as well. The tobacco free snus has few studies of it's health risks, but personally I doubt it is more dangerous than regular snus, which itself has very, very slim health risks compared to smoking. Thanks to Snus and tobacco free snus we have the lowest amount of smokers in the EU region, showing as 5% in 2019. Snus for the people!
American here, I can remember kids in school using these in the locker room during gym class. Some would put as many as 4 or 5 pouches, then pass out on their desk in the next class. I had no idea it was so rampant in professional soccer.
I didn't even know it had made its way into football. I went to a winter sports school and athletes from basically all kinds of sports use it. From skiing/snowboarding (all freestyle, alpine and cross disciplines), to ski jumping, cross country skiing and biathlon, skeleton, luge and bobsledding. Almost every athlete used it...
It's funny you made this video. A friend of mine got addicted to Snus through all the Scandinavian players playing for the Dutch pro club he worked for.
I have used snus for 35 years without any issues. I have have a pouch under my lip pretty much all day except for when I eat.. Once I even brushed my teeth with one there as well. I just moved the pouch around as i brushed :)
Snus is quite common in Finland. Selling it here is illegal but many people can easily travel to Sweden to buy lots of snus and then sell it onwards to their friends. It is especially common amongst ice hockey players and conscripts here.
Same. Atleast 1/3 of all known swedish footballers last 50 years probably used it. And also like 1/3 of all swedish men for over 100 years. So is it an explosion of throat cancer and mouth cancer in Sweden? No!
@@ryanoreily5402 They're never going to stop spreading the lies; no amount of facts/statistics are going to change their minds on this. Even otherwise intelligent people can be remarkably ignorant about issues outside of their expertise and the "experts" are bought and paid for by public health organizations who are themselves acting in bad faith.
I do hope that this report from the PFA actually looks into the underlying causes of this rise in usage (regardless of harm level of snus) and helps support the players more. Also it's a bit laughable that the medical staff that's pumping these players full of PEDs to keep up with the pace of the game and power through minor injuries are telling them that snus is dangerous.
Snus is not linked to cancer, many studies have been made on this and there is no correlation between snus and the risk of cancer going up just wanted to clarify that
I started using it in the Finnish army. Among conscripts the rate is slightly less than smokers, but among professional soldiers, it is probably over 80%.
I used to be good friends with someone at Leicester, I won’t say who. They told about snus years ago and I started to use it as well as many players in their dressing room. Didn’t realise how many people used it until you go on the odd night out or even see players using it in games
as a norwegian it is strange seeing snus talked about like a serius issue in england and other nations when it is so common in all areas in scandinavian culture.
well in North America its taken more so as an issue because several years ago Tony Gwyn who was baseball players and one of the best of his generation died because of cancer stemming from dip which is another form of chewing tobacco
@@qwertyuiop123453993 Dip is a lot more dangerous than snus though since it has way more carcinogens. There were warning labels for cancer on snus cans in Sweden back in the 80s but they had to be removed since it wasn't clear that snus causes cancer to a significant degree. Carcinogen levels in Skoal and Thunder are like 7 times higher than something like General or GR. Dip is also generally weaker than snus so you need to use more of it.
@@noha7688 It's also worth noting that while dip is certainly more unhealthy and risky than snus the number of long-term dip users who experience serious health problems is still so tiny that it's basically statistically insignificant, especially when researchers control for concurrent combustible tobacco use (a phenomenon much, much more common in the US than any Scandinavian country, probably a consequence of our long history of cigarette advertisement and consistent representations of combustible tobacco products in US media).
Here in Sweden and Norway it is very common, but I had no idea that is was so common among football players. In the elite youth team where I was playing when I was around 15 we where discouraged from using it, but I have never seen it being discouraged anywhere else here.
Here in Algeria we do have a kind of snus it's called "chemma" it's made mainly of tobacco and many other ingredients but it's sold not like tea bags but in small bags and you add tobacco paper before, many football players here use it and it's quite bigger than the snus the most famous player was Rafik Saifi!
All the Swedish and Norwegian players use Snus. The effects of nicotine tightens the vains and hinder bloodstream. Expect from that it's no big deal. Not healthy, but no big deal
"No doping rules are broken by it" well no obviously not - it's not a performance enhancing drug. It's a relatively healthy alternative to cigarettes albeit a highly addictive one. It's just tobacco, table salt and water.
I didn’t know snus was outlawed in Europe before seeing this video. Other than laws, why would it be an issue if someone wants to put a small pouch of tobacco/caffeine under their lip. It’s not harming other around the person say like smoking. I think the health issues are over blown, I’m curious are the players allowed to drink alcohol and caffeine? Obviously not during a game, but on their own time. If they can, then it really makes no since. Sounds more like people in positions of power just wanting to not allow people to use something because they don’t want to consume or like it.
I snused until last year. started when i was 15, so around 20 years. And the "facts" you have in this video is truly comical. Probably not worse for your teeth then drinking tee with sugar every day. Definitely not performance enhancing. You get a nicotine buzz in the beginning that disappear after some time of use. Then its more like a habit that chills you out. Never in my life heard that you can get mental health disorder from snus. First week of quitting I was a bit on the edge but not mental health disorder :D Chill out Athletic and take a snus.
Is addiction not a type of mental health disorder? It's like most descriptions of substances and the risk associated with their use. Sure you might not develop something from the snus *directly* but there are already studies that link things like nicotine to the onset of schizophrenia for example.
@@Jayfive276 In a study from Sweden on firefighters, no performance improvement was found in snus users when they were given snus compared to people who did not take snus and who did not take anything at all before the tests.
@@juuglord8509 You misread the studies; nicotine has not been found in any way to cause the onset of schizophrenia, or schizophrenic symptoms. Rather, there's evidence to suggest that nicotine helps *lessen* the symptoms of schizophrenia, so nicotine use (often in the form of tobacco) is high among schizophrenic individuals.
@@Megaultraawesome99 I have not read any studies, admittedly, so cheers for filling in the gaps. My point had more to do with the often vague wording found in summary pieces like these; linked rather than cause in this case, but I was wrong to assume that link had anything to do with causing schizophrenia, so thanks for the correction.
I remember when a snus brand called Lyft started selling in Kenya. Everybody got hooked such that the government had to intervene. I couldn't handle the nicotine high so I never got hooked on it but almost all my friends were on it. Crazy.
I used to go through a 4-dot Lyft Freeze container a day until it got to the point that it made me physically unwell. Well done not getting hooked on that stuff.
My mate started using snus to quit smoking and vaping. I tried some of it last night and it just made me feel light headed, sick and nauseous. It’s probably because I rarely ever use nicotine so my body isn’t used to having it.
I remember how quickly it became popular in school. Every goddamn kid was doing it, the toilet ceiling was literally covered with used snus. Bad old times..
There is a small distinction not made in this video. There is snus and there are newer non tobacco nicotine pouches which have become increasingly popular. I think many new age footballers are using the non tobacco stuff. Not saying it isn’t free of issues or addiction (obviously) but I feel there may be a slight difference in potential risk. Current research is being done to look at the newer nicotine pouches so we shall wait and see.
Chewing tobacco is so common in American baseball culture that there is a gum marketed to kids called "Big League Chew," and it's just regular bubblegum cut up like tobacco. Also, one of the big reasons sunflower seeds are popular in baseball is that chewing seeds keep your mouth occupied so you don't fill it with it dip.
Chewing sunflower seeds?! You can choke on em pretty easily, lol. Turks and some other balkan countries (I think) open it up with their teeth and eat the kernel part as a snack.
I started with snus at fifteen when I started to train with the adult team of the handball club I was playing for lol I think most (at least the men) professional Swedish athletes use it.
Snus is actually banned in Finland, so I think it's more specifically a Swedish thing, that has also spread to Norway to some extent. I don't know about Denmark or Iceland.
Denmark and Norway have special rights to sell snus for example in Norway all of the ”pucks” look the same to take away visual appeal. In Finland they just made a change in law. You can now order nicotine pouches ( basically snus but with ONLY nicotine - no tobacco etc.) legally to the country. I know that these products have a huge and young audience, which basically means that snus has become legal in Finland too. Nicotine pouches are wildly popular among athletes too.
A lot of Finnish people still snus. They either take the boat or cross the border. The stores close to the border are some of the biggest sellers of snus in Sweden, because so many Finns will cross.
Can't sell snus here, but you can sell nicotine pouches and buy them almost everywhere. Basically the same thing. I used to use them, I quit because I didn't want to be dependent and they had become habbit. I managed to quit quite easily because I had a heavier addiction, but that's gone now too. I will say however they seem to be really good in helping people quit smoking, so maybe not entirely evil but don't see them as harmless
there is nothing evil to it, it's bad for your health no doubt about that but so it's coca cola who is one of the main sponsors of UEFA. There was and they are a lot of players who smoke , as someone who smokes, it help me reduce anxiety and stress. and i would rather risk getting cancer than dieing due to stress.
I would say it's not the same thing 😅 used in the same way under your lip, i thing you'll be surprised how bad i think real snus would taste for you in comparison
@@elinstalatoren oh really? I assumed it'd taste different but I thought some might actually taste better since theres so many more flavours. But I suppose they all have that base tobacco flavour
Has been commonly available in norway/Sweden for decades. Much, much more common than sigarettes here in Norway. Probably around 1/3 young adults snus regularly
I live in Liverpool and used to work in Chester and the office I was working in had a few people that had played academy football for Manchester United and they were using Snus heavily in their day to day life. It's honestly an epidemic in football. You see players all the time with it, Tyrone Mings is the one that always comes to my mind when thinking of Snus. He's probably the player stated in the video as being a "high profile England international" that's always seen with it.
In Hungary snus is actually legal to sell if you're of age of course. Athletes and highschoolers are the main buyers of snus, since it doesn't produce smoke, and is less noticable then smoking a cigarette or a vape. If you go to any highschool here, even if it is the most prestigious in the country, you'll find snus in the tables, or if you ask someone who goes there, they'll probably give you snus, or know someone who can give you. Of course it is forbidden to use it in schools, but its so unnoticeable and easy to hide that teachers can't do anything about it
I'm Swedish and I finally quit it after 15 years on the 1st of june last year. I still use the placebo no nicotine/no tobacco alternatives though XD. Snus is like a friend in the dark as an old friend of mine used to say.
@@JabbarTV1 Not saying you should start, but snus can actually help you lose weight. You become less hungry for sweets and food in general. After I started consuming snus I almost never eat unhealthy anymore.
I'm Norwegian and while traveling europe by train i was stopped by military guards in the Gare du Nord train station and had to prove to them that it was in fact tobacco and not illegal drugs.
Here in norway its absolutely normal to find even teens as young as 10 year olds using snus..basically everyone is on snus.. its so prevalent that NOT exempting a snus from a college/friend a snus is seen as strange/unnormal.
Ive seen rashford and greenwood stuffing loads of these in a couple years ago in a club in Manchester. Always wondered why no one talked about the rife use
I believe that there are big misconceptions about snus outside of Scandinavia, which is understandable since it’s only really common there. Snus is in general a bit healthier than cigarettes. Some snus types (all white) doesnt use tobacco though. Snus is addicting but far from a drug or doping. Snus-usage is well established and extremely common among top ice hockey players in NHL, many even play with snus, so i dont see it being a problem for footballers using it as a way to cope with the stress as long as they can mantain their fitness levels. Some could even arguee that hockey is a more demanding sport than football in regards to stamina and it hasnt been a problem there
@@hazey5736you look at it a little to harsh, you know vape pens have about the same amount of nicotine and compared tho all white snus that uses a medium infused with nicotine it have the same health problem (most likely less because it don't go though your lungs)
Wow, this is very interesting and has a dillema with it. On one hand it is an addicting stimulant which may help players at the highest levels to feel calm and less nervous, with all the stress that comes with using somehting like this. But on the other hand these players may not have had the guidance when they started it (Loanees, academies and such). Hopefully players could be given guidance on such products and help them understand the short term benifit they think they are getting alongwith long term sideeffects.
I've heard that it's tecnically not quite legal to sell snus here in switzerland, but you can still buy them at pretty much every shop that sells other tobaccoproducts as well.
@@VioletSkeleton Caue it´s been here for 200 years and there is no proof of even one case of cancer due to snus and the stuff legal to buy in oher countries don´t even have tobacco in it. Only nicotine.
living in sweden its crazy hearing about sus being talked about like a drug its so normal in sweden everbody i know uses snus my parents, friends, my grandad, teachers etc, it is not as dangerous as its being described as in the video it is way safer than smoking and drinking, more people die from drinking, smoking, marijuana its never been looked as dangerous in sweden its carzy people actually belive its dangerous, it can be bad for your teeth and gum thats about it
As a swede I find snus quite fascinating. I never tried it because I saw my dad use it daily when I grew and I realized how hooked he was, then I also learned to dislike the smell of it. But it's very normalized here in Sweden and for many people seem as a great substitute for
South american here. I had never heard of them. In some regions in and near Bolivia it is an ancestral habit to use leaves of 'coca' in similar fashion to SNUS, mainly to help with altitude problems and, in the plains, just to stay awake or traditional practice.
25% of the swedish male population use snus, and that’s the primary reason we have substantially lower rates of lung cancer (and cancer overall), since people use snus instead of smoking. Studies have shown that no one has ever died of cancer in relation to use of snus.
My dad got throat cancer which spread to lungs and eventually killed him. he was a heavy snus user, but there is no proof or link that it necessarily was the snus that caused the cancer, as there is alot of cancer running in this family anyways. However, it would probably be best to take health more seriously and if possible try to quit. I've been snusing 40 grams a day for the past 20 years. It's maybe time.
I bought a graphics card from a friend who lives in sweden during the shortage and he sent me a few packs of XR Slim White. That stuff is lovely if nicotine is your thing
As a Scandinavian it's pretty wild seeing snus talked about as this "mystery" product. In Norway it's about twice as prevalent as smoking in the general population.
As a german too. But with you Scandinavians it's another matter. With you, it's already a cultural commodity. I used to buy a lot from you because it was forbidden in Germany. But I never noticed it in the Bundesliga. In ice hockey in Germany, however, you see players all the time taking a snus on the bench.
i quit smoking and took up Snus after spending time in Trondheim!
It seems ridiculous for me too and I’m from Finland edit for context: this kind of short documentary should be made from elementary school children using snus not adults 😁
As an Aussie I have only ever seed it as a black market product being sold, or from working along side Euro's in the maritime industry, plenty of Ukrainians, Poles and Germans bring it over here that I work with.
Meanwhile 130 kr for a dosa. I guess people go to Sweden to buy snus?
"A bit of Cancer" is a wild phrase. Just a smidge you know, a little spot of Cancer
“Just gonna get a little cancer Stan, tell your mom it’s ok” -Randy Marsh
Well it wasn’t a big bit
@@gibsonhooper1157 “Mom said stop trying to give yourself cancer”
It's not really if you think about it. People get inconsequential spots of skin cancer all the time.
@@Goukimane people also get very consequential spots of brain cancer.
As a swede I find snus quite fascinating. I never tried it because I saw my dad use it daily when I grew and I realized how hooked he was, then I also learned to dislike the smell of it. But it's very normalized here in Sweden and for many people seem as a great substitute for smoking.
Strange.. I never imagined a root vegetable would be interested in the use of Snus?
@@YIDARMY08 ?
@@MrBadlandabad in UK English, the term “swede” is used to refer to what is also called a rutabaga or sometimes “Swedish turnip”
The person was saying that the original comment said “As a swede” (no capitalization) and that made them think of the term for a rutabaga instead of Swedish people
@@patrickmccormack3209 Thanks Pat - you’re far more articulate than me and I couldn’t have said it better....
Visst är sättet de säger snus irriterande😂
As a Swede hearing snus being talked about as a scandalous thing that people don't want to talk about publicly is really strange. Imagine being from the UK and watching a Swedish documentary about tea, with the narrator saying things like "In Sweden an alarming trend of people drinking a dangerous drug called tea is on the rise, with some Swedish people even drinking tea in public. Recently, a Swedish football player was seen in public holding a bag of Earl Grey. Tea drinkers were afraid of appearing in this documentary for fear of losing sponsorships." That's what watching this video is like for a Swede.
Lmao
100 % agree on this. And it's not more performance enhancing than a cigarette. It has actually been shown to reduce your sense of balance, but it has also been shown to increase you reaction time. So for a footballer I would doubt it has any performance enhancing benefits.
Also what it's like for an American snuser watching this.
Honestly it’s the same as an American lol
better compared to alcohol or caffeine which are both terrible over used drugs.
Snus helped me quit smoking and eventually nicotine altogether. I went from smoking, to using snus then eventually started using "all white" tobacco free snus (nicotine pouches). Eventually I was able to buy ones with less nicotine and quit completely. I will say though, for a portion of that time though I was using very high nicotine snus because it's easy to build up your tolerance. This was mostly due to the fact that snus can be conveniently done in most places that cigarettes cant which make it easy to overuse and build up a nicotine tolerance with. Compounding this since you put the pouch in your upper lip instead of lower it stays dry and you can even eat and drink with it in without any issues. Overall I have quite a positive opinion on it for people who already smoke but if you aren't addicted to nicotine already then there really is no point to begin anyways.
as an American who grew up in baseball and ice hockey, you saw chewing/dipping tobacco constantly and they are very similar products. Mainly, most athletes (that I know) who use it just do so as a way to satisfy the nicotine craving, but not hurt their lungs/breathing.
To quote an old teammate, "it's a lot easier to get new teeth" and I would bet a similar attitude is real prevalent elsewhere
It’s similar in the way that you use it, yes. However the dip is way worse health wise.
@@morre6894 a nicotine addiction is always terrible for you though
@@bigfish3846 Yeah, if you got that hooked ofc. Just clarifying since it seems to be a widespread misconception that they are the same.
@@morre6894 your relative risks of cancer are roughly the exact same with snus as they are with chewing tobacco and dip. Stop spreading misinformation it is not safer
@@bigfish3846 Yeah but this argument you're trying to make is equating a nicotine addiction with a nicotine addiction that also kills you. There's an insanely huge difference
As a swede I find it very funny when people talk about snusing as something only done within athletics, it's so common in sweden that you can find it more easialy than cigarettes, because any place that sells food sells snus.
In Sweden it's also very widespread, about half of my friends including me do it.
is it good?
@@bassofd00mDepends on what you mean with good. It is obviously bad for your health but it makes u relaxed in the beginning but the more frequent and longer you take it you will not get that feeling anymore. Only the feeling of wanting to take it regularly.
Why are u acting like ur proud of it
@@Abcdefg-rk8jk how does it make u think im proud of it?
It is very popular here in Sweden but i have seen it online that it seems like they use in America too but they call it "Dip".
If Snus had any enhacning athletical effect then Sweden would have dominated the world cup for decades by now.
Correction: without snus, Sweden probably wouldn't qualify for world cup.
Same with Norway 😂
Source: a 12 year old with low IQ trying to science
@@dt8101 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
True 😂
Snus is readily available in Denmark and I used it for a couple months before I had enough. It's super easy to get addicted to and escalate usage since it's so easy to very quickly put a pouch under your gum and continue about your day instead of having to go outside to smoke or vape.
Using snus is really normal here in Norway. It’s very popular amongst teens and lots of my friends use it daily and gets desperate if they can’t get their hands on it. Seeing it portrayed as a mysterious booster for professional footballers is wierd
Tifo Football keeps asking and answering questions we all never thought of. What a channel!
It’s literally in the news cycle and has been for the past 2 weeks
@@Alphoric well I follow football news generally and I just found out through this channel
@@zainyardo1136 then you’re not following the news very well if you someone missed this
this video is misinformation tho
I'm English but currently live in Sweden and even though i'm used to seeing it now, Snus addiction is pretty crazy. I know people who use Snus when they sleep and they will wake up in the night to change it, plus it's also not uncommon to see people pop a pouch in their mouth *the second* they've finished their last mouthful of lunch/food. One moment i'll never forget is when I was at an afterwork at the office with my boss and he had run out of snooze, he turned and looked at me and said "ok, don't judge me for this" and proceeded to roll up a small ball of kitchen roll and placed it under his top gum, "this will help for the moment" he said.
So is coffee, so is sugar. I took a look at the big study in Sweden about throat cancer, the side with no snus use was like 30k participants and 8 or 9 throat cancer cases. The side with snus use was like 30k participants and 13 or 14 throat cancer cases. They then said it 30 or 40% more likely to have cancer, nah, its not, its in the variance of that case. Big misunderstanding how statistics work or how many things make you dependent of something, and this video is proof of bad journalism...
@@matthiasblum6555 final opinion on snus?
@@matthiasblum6555 source would be appreciated
@@ivy8483 Not as bad as other tobacco/nicotine sources. Some snus taste really good aswell, unlike cigarettes and people won't be affected by your addiction unlike cigs.
börja snusa du med
Giving a new meaning to the phrase "Death by Snus Snus"
Ah a fellow man of culture. Great episode of Futurama that.
Snus seems to have the side effect of crushed pelvises
You beat me to it! 😄
Awesome Futurama reference! ****5 STARS!***
As a Finn, using snus is super common, and we don't use theese mild 4mg snuses, we use 20-40mg toxic waste-like snus
What brand of dip do you have available there? Copenhagen Grizzly Cougar Stokers?
@@MattFuller-eh6cw oden's and siberia, if u google about them, i think u'll gonna be terrified:DD
The best is Pablo 50g
@@MattFuller-eh6cw We dont really use "dip" or products similar to that in Finland. Except "loose snus" is pretty close to dip as far as i understand. We mainly use real Swedish snus or nowadays nicotine pouches. These typically range from 12 to 30mg of nicotine / portion. I dont think Copenhagen is a relevant brand in the Nordics, its probably a Yankee brand with no real relations to real snus companies
There might be a bit of confusion about it's illegality. There is snus and there are nicotine pouches - in the EU, one is illegal while the other is completely fine. Only difference is that snus contains actual parts of the tobacco plants while the pouches have either synthetic or clean extracted nicotine. Both have the same effects. Most europeans including footballers usually use the legal variant from my experience.
As a Swede, I have to point out that I would assume a lot of footballers use the nicotine only pouches and not snus with tobacco and nicotine. Since the tobacco ones are illegal in all EU member states except for Sweden (maybe some other exceptions also). And the nicotine ones aren’t as bad for a persons health. That said, these are nowhere near as bad as cigarettes etc. But they could be bad for the footballers physical fitness/conditioning.
It's illegal to sell it in the UK but it's not illegal to use it. I'm not sure what the restrictions are exactly on importing it on your person (for personal use) however i've had it in my luggage on numerous occasions (when travelling from Sweden to the UK) and have never had an issue. But yes it's easier for them to get the tobacco free pouches so they probably use them.
Vast majority of ‘snus’ in uk is synthetic. Very legal and sold in major supermarkets. Things like VELO and killa are most popular
There are still ways to get it in the UK- I've come across some Twitter accounts that advertise that they have some to sell in the UK (and this is the tobacco based stuff, not the nicotine pouches). Also it's not illegal to buy it from non-EU sources- there's an Israel-based website that ships snus back to the EU.
I live in the Channel Islands and the Sweden-based snus sellers are happy to post their stuff to me. I need to stop using it though... going to this year.
@@exsandgrounder it’s very addictive apparently
@@kylek814 VELO is a Swedish brand mate- also VELO isn't snus, it's just nicotine pouches with no tobacco.
It’s like chewing tobacco/dip in American baseball/football. Just became a culture thing and it’s a stimulant.
The difference is that swedish snus isn’t nearly as bad when it comes to potential cancer risks etc.
Yeah, I remember growing up in the 80's and 90's, chewing tobacco was just considered normal for baseball players.
@@morre6894 that’s a complete misconception actually. They have less trace contaminants, but that doesn’t translate to harm reduction. Studies have been done on this. Also either way all tobacco is bad for you
@@davidshatto7604 They actually had to change the labels here in Sweden becuase they couldn´t prove that the SWEDISH snus and cancer was correlated. However the research on that gets updated all the time, my point wasn´t about it being good but to highlight that the american "version" is way worse.
@@morre6894 or simply put one is pasteurized and the other goes thru fermentation
I've used snus for roughly 9 years. It hasn't done my health any service, but it has helped me through episodes and long stretches of time of high stress. Snus isn't a preformance enhancing drug, it's cigs you can use without bothering anyone else with smoke or smell. The health issues that may come are for you and you alone to bear, unlike second hand smoking.
What we’re some of the health issues you faced due to your usage of snus?
"The health issues that may come are for you and you alone to bear"
Also, for our health care systems dealing with more unnecessary cancer and other health problems because of its use. This will only perpetuated further by feeding societal acceptance of harmful products. It's basically 1 step backwards for getting people to quit smoking.
@@RefnResthat can also be said about people stuffing themselves with sugary drinks or eating high calories meals everyday. are we going to shame people who are obese just as we are to smokers? Where does it end?
@@RefnRes As far as I understand there hasn't actually been proven how cancerous it is, although users seem more likely to get cancer in their throat or gums. It is nevertheless much less harmful than smoking.
Not entirely true, yes there are no ‘second hand’ smoke sufferers to those who snus, however, it is a substance that contributes (at least here in sweden where I have worked within the healthcare sector for the last 15+ years) to the ever growing burden placed upon the healthcare system due to complications associated with prolonged exposure to nicotine (patients with diabetes suffer more than most). Where individuals have the attitude that it is a much better alternative to smoking so it’s ok (=false). Not to mention the other unspoken point about just how much littering/harm is caused by those little pouches of used snus that people will simply flick out from under the lip out onto the ground. It is rife and disgusting.
It's been quite a big thing in the last few years in Switzerland as well. I used to buy one box per week and I was really addicted many times consuming 4-5 a day (I am aware that some people consume much more). I still consume snus sometimes when I'm offered a bag but I stopped buying full boxes about 2 months ago and I have to say it's not that easy not having the nicotine flash
I've snused and played football myself and it never makes you better. Only increases your heartbeat unnecessarily
I use it when I'm bored at work, that's the proper way to do it! //From a Swede
@@bengtsondanilo snusa på min vän
@@bengtsondanilo Yes, you're right, it's good for boredom. I have always ordered from Sweden here to Germany. Is there actually any country that even comes close to you in terms of snus production? Your neighbouring countries?
its wild seeing comments like this talking about it like its something new. mate its just tobacco in a pouch. dip, vapes, cigarettes, cigars. they all give you the same effect in a different form. i really dont get why people are treating it like its something different.
@@newp0rt You mean my comment? If so, of course I realise that it is a normal nicotine product that has been around for ages. Only in the video it is presented as if it were a new phenomenon. That's why I wrote that it doesn't helped at football because it increases the heartbeat unnecessarily. Of course, the same applies to all other tobacco products.
People don’t realise just how much this stuff is used within football, you watch a game on TV easily at least a 3rd of the players on the pitch have one in right there and then
I’m shocked by this. I have been using them for around 6 months to quit smoking and I find my cardio ability with one in is significantly worse than without (obviously) but to be playing a football match with one in is crazy, it’s like trying to cycle whilst smoking a cig.
@@ibraheemmonks8866 yeah their (footballers) very high levels of fitness somewhat mask the problems of nicotine use
If anything, that can mean that they use it in greater amounts because some of the side effects are diminished by being in tip-top shape
Being very fit will do nothing for preventing the possible effects of cancer, sleep deprivation, and increased risk of mental breaks from its use
Really? I'd be afraid of it falling out or even swallowing it
In football, I think maybe 10 per cent in the top leagues. You rarely see a player spit out something brown. First you spit brown spit and then you spit the snus out. Never saw this in football on the pitch. And nobody leaves a snus inside for 45 minutes. And if they did, they would be spitting brown juice the whole time. That would be noticeable. In hockey there are always changes and interruptions where you can dispose of it. In hockey, 85 per cent use it in Europe, especially Scandinavia. You see players on the bench all the time shoving snus in their mouths. All the good brands come from there, too. I used to order there often.
I’ve always wondered what they (or looked like) they were chewing on..now I know haha
I'm from Sweden and my doctor recommended snus as a way to quit smoking - and it worked! Not had a cigarette in 8 years. My doctors reasoning was that cigarettes is linked to increased risk for 30+ diseases, many of them fatal. When it comes to snus he said that it increases risk for a handful of diseases. So by switching from cigarettes to snus I decreased my risk for 25 diseases! It's very addicting though, but god I do love it.
There is more nicotine in snus
Congrats, 8 years strong, keep going man 💪
@@alexandersamson5866 nicotine in an isolated environment is not that bad for you and research isn’t clear on if it’s carcinogenic at all. It’s many, many times better for you than cigarettes. Cigarettes have dozens of carcinogens beyond nicotine
now you just need to quit snus and then its good
@@chicagogamer420 That's great and all but actual snus contains nicotine and tobacco, it isn't just nicotine.
Well if you do the research Swedish snus doesn’t cause cancer and have never been related to death. Swedish tobacco is curated with water stem unlike American tobacco which is curated by burning with causes tarr to release which causes cancer. Also snus and nicotine pouches are totally different
In Slovakia you can buy it everywhere. Also lot of football players and hockey players use it.
Very popular in ice hockey and baseball in North America too. At all levels, amateur and top professional
not only North America, any country with ice hockey or baseball
We call it “dip” this one kid on my high school’s baseball team did it all the time. The coaches knew it too but didn’t say anything because he was a top prospect
Here in Europe I think 90 percent of the Scandinavian hockey player use it. It’s very huge in Scandinavia. Also in Germany I know many people who use it
I run a pub in a smaller US hockey town. The urinals probably have as many snus packets in the screens as anything else they're used for. 😂
don’t know about baseball but I would imagine that since ice hockey is extremely popular in Scandinavia, all the Scandinavians who come to the NHL or even for college or high school in the US bring it with them and show their teammates. I have a conspiracy theory that John Guidetti, failed Swedish wonderkid, brought it with him to Man City around 10 years ago when they signed him and it’s never left since.
I remember going to Sweden a few years ago and bringing back a few pots to the UK. I liked it back then (not now), but none of my mates were interested in trying it. So I'm surprised to hear that there are a quite few players in the various leagues using it, given it's not something a lot of people usually do. Still better than drinking or gambling though.
It's not better than either of those things.
All of them can be incredibly dangerous for your health
It’s because it gives you a buzz akin to a cigarette or vape, without affecting your lungs which are crucial for footballers
@@l_b_xd5313 Snus really isn't. Literally 25% of the population use it here in Sweden and we have had decades of research on it showing little correlation to things like throat cancer while having one of the most healthy populations in the world. If 25% of the population meanwhile where alcoholics or smoking the life expectancy would have dropped by several years. This whole video is just bad journalism. Heck, he doesn't even know the difference between nicotine poaches (what is actually being used by these football players) and snus.
Pretty sure Trippier was using it in an post match interview back in January
😂🤣
yeah trippiers always got one in ahaha
Ziyech is the other footballer mentioned in this video I think, has been spotted and filmed quite a few times with snus.
Nah, he’s just ugly I think
Jamie Vardy also has been seen often using snus
As a Swede I've been using snus since I was about 11-12, it's bad on paper but in my case I've always dealt with much heavier addiction so the snus has almost become ok and I've never really thought of quitting.
11-12? Fyfan 😂
Fax same. Is what it is. Been on way worse stuff it ant that bad. Sucks being addicted but at least a needle ant in my arm or something
I'm swedish and both my father, auntie and youngest cousin (23) and many more people i know or have seen are users of Snus. It can be bought in almost every store and some big places like big trainstations, shopping centers and airports will probably have nicotine shops stacked with mostly Snus. Its basically a part of Swedish culture and I myself haven't noticed any side effects, but maybe you have to be a viking to handle it :)
Here in Scandinavian countries, snus for footballers is like regular chewing gum. Don't be surprised if you see Ødegaard and Haaland using it, just saying. It's no big deal for footballers who grew up in Nordic countries. English media likes to make it look like it's the new dope to be worried about. Same league that threw a fuss over a neck warmer and got it banned. Now imagine trying to ban a neck warmer in colder countries like Norway, Iceland, Sweden or Finland. Never happening here. 😅
Haaland, sure, Ødegaard would be a bit of a surprise, considering how much of a "good boy" he is.
I wouldn't put a neck warmer on the same level as putting highly concentrated nicotine right onto your soft tissue and membrane, surely you must see that it could be problematic, especially for top level athletes that are extremely challenged every week on a physical level
It's a literal health issue, why would any player willingly subject themselves to high risks of cancer?
Yeah cos nicotine products being sold to children and cancer being cut out of peoples gum due to snus is no big deal, just the English media overreacting of course, wish we could be as perfect as your scandis
Drug addicts be drug addicts
It’s already been in Germany since about a year or two and many of my friends take it.
Must be said that this stuff is very strong
There are versions with way less nicotine
Nah, that stuff has been around for quite some time, but only recently has become something young people use, who are bringing it into the mainstream.
here in Denmark, floors are littered with these little things all over the place. it's crazy popular here
Its actually been available (a very similar legal product) in mainstream shops in britain for about a decade but it never really took off, it was mainly scanidnavians who used it
There’s different strengths to it so that’s s a generalization.
As a Norwegian who regularly uses snus, I can say that it will not increase performance, but can help to relax better and will not have an impact on health like crisps, chocolate and soft drinks. Which I think is why it is popular with football players.
It is very common in Scandinavia (especially Norway and Sweden, where its fully legal to consume and selll). I saw a picture on Elneny's story once of Martin Ødegaard who obviously used it on the plane.
In Norway, it is also not allowed to write that snus "is harmful to health and carcinogenic" on the box, because research cannot prove that it is actually carcinogenic. Instead, it says on the box "it can(!) be harmful to health and addictive".
Good point but does the snus used in your country have tobacco?
@@kb4432 snus has tobacco. The snus that doesn't are nicotine free.
@@Stef_FPL this is wrong. Snus with tobacco existsnin sweden. Snus without tobacco does have nicotine, just not tobacco. So its not carcinogenic. This is legal in some eu countries. There is a large difference in the tobacco free ones and those with tobacco. This video should have discussed this
@@wnwkrodb3b I was kind of joking. Snus was never meant to be nicotine free or without tobacco. That's something that has come much later.
@@kb4432 yes it has tobacco. weird but its actually not allowed to sell snus without tobacco in norway.
Wrong about the illegal part in europe. They can be purchased legally in baltic countries like Latvia and probably some others aswell
"A bit of Cancer" is a wild phrase. Just a smidge you know
When I was in Norway virtually everyone was using them and now they are also available here in Poland, even in the strongest form
Fun fact: Moomin character Snufkin is called Nuuskamuikkunen (Nuuska = Snus, Muikkunen is a surname) in Finnish and Snusmumriken (Snus = Snus, Mumrik(en) is a type of troll in Moomins) in Swedish.
Also: it doesn't matter whether or not Chelsea fc will hire him as their next manager - he will leave in the autumn anyway.
Snusa is also a word for snoring/sniffle/sleeping/relaxing/the period of time before you fall asleep back in the day. I even heard people saying it when i was younger to refer to a sleeping child. "Olof ligger och snusar" . When it comes to mumindalen there is also a character named "sniff" so i think it's more likely that the connection isn't from the tobacco product and more to do with the "sleepy" "sniffle" "snort" meaning. Finnish and Swedish has a lot of shared vocabulary stemming from the fact that it has basically been the same country for hundreds of years.
If the players are not getting warned of the health risks with snus there is a problem. In Sweden snus is used by most footballers and theres no big deal, but here everyone knows the health risks.
Recently went to Turkey on holiday and met some really lovely Swedish people. As a Brit and a long term vaper, they introduced me to snus. Since using it my breathing and cardio has improved by a substantial amount. Also it isn’t a banned substance in the uk anymore, you can buy it freely. Also the medical research around causing any cancer is pretty loose with a lot of journals using terms such as ‘possibly causing’ ‘can cause’ etc. all in all, for me personally, it’s been brilliant to wean me off vapes, feel healthier and it’s more cost effective.
Tobacco is the worst kind of psychidelic tho. Worse than nicotine and much worse than vapes. Tobacco can cause a lot of problems.
@@memestrous tobacco IS nicotine...
There are snus that has no tobacco in it which have had a rise in Sweden for the last 4-5 years. Its much cleaner for the teeth but I think it is to new to say if it's better from a health perspective. But all of my snusing friends have change to the "white snus" without tobacco. @@memestrous
Lol@@Pingwinho
Snus is a traditional product since hundreds of years in Sweden, which we are very proud of as it is a part of our cultural history and a common sight in most families since generations back.
I'd like to add that most probably the "Snus" discussed in this video is not actual snus made from tobacco, but a tobacco free alternative containing only nicotine and plant fiber material with flavouring. As by EU-law, tobacco snus is not allowed to sell in the European Union except Sweden.
Tobacco free snus however is legal to sell and that is what we see the footballers use. Plenty of shops and distributers in England, France and recently southern europe as well.
The tobacco free snus has few studies of it's health risks, but personally I doubt it is more dangerous than regular snus, which itself has very, very slim health risks compared to smoking.
Thanks to Snus and tobacco free snus we have the lowest amount of smokers in the EU region, showing as 5% in 2019.
Snus for the people!
Have you tried the tobacco free stuff? I find it really burns my mouth and i haven't had that with actual snus lol
American here, I can remember kids in school using these in the locker room during gym class. Some would put as many as 4 or 5 pouches, then pass out on their desk in the next class. I had no idea it was so rampant in professional soccer.
I didn't even know it had made its way into football. I went to a winter sports school and athletes from basically all kinds of sports use it. From skiing/snowboarding (all freestyle, alpine and cross disciplines), to ski jumping, cross country skiing and biathlon, skeleton, luge and bobsledding. Almost every athlete used it...
That's ironic since nicotine is terrible for your circulation.
It's funny you made this video. A friend of mine got addicted to Snus through all the Scandinavian players playing for the Dutch pro club he worked for.
I have used snus for 35 years without any issues. I have have a pouch under my lip pretty much all day except for when I eat.. Once I even brushed my teeth with one there as well. I just moved the pouch around as i brushed :)
Snus is gaining a lot of traction in central and eastern europe especially in teenagers , it´s getting even more popular than smoking .
"I was out in *Manchester* with some of the England players. I tried it and I liked it *to be fair* "
Player X is Gary Neville!
Thought maybe rashford.
@@saints4life55 the hint is "to be fair"
'I liked it at that moment in time'
Or Clinton Morrison to be fair...
@@Zonaverdi_ he's Irish
Snus is quite common in Finland. Selling it here is illegal but many people can easily travel to Sweden to buy lots of snus and then sell it onwards to their friends. It is especially common amongst ice hockey players and conscripts here.
It's also really popular among combat sports folks
As a swede this is actually hilarious
🤓
Same. Atleast 1/3 of all known swedish footballers last 50 years probably used it. And also like 1/3 of all swedish men for over 100 years. So is it an explosion of throat cancer and mouth cancer in Sweden? No!
Största skämtet
@@ryanoreily5402
They're never going to stop spreading the lies; no amount of facts/statistics are going to change their minds on this. Even otherwise intelligent people can be remarkably ignorant about issues outside of their expertise and the "experts" are bought and paid for by public health organizations who are themselves acting in bad faith.
Helt underbar 😅 det har ju bara funnit i våran kultur sen 1600 talet så man kan absolut kalla det för en ny fluga!
I do hope that this report from the PFA actually looks into the underlying causes of this rise in usage (regardless of harm level of snus) and helps support the players more. Also it's a bit laughable that the medical staff that's pumping these players full of PEDs to keep up with the pace of the game and power through minor injuries are telling them that snus is dangerous.
Snus is not linked to cancer, many studies have been made on this and there is no correlation between snus and the risk of cancer going up just wanted to clarify that
I started using it in the Finnish army. Among conscripts the rate is slightly less than smokers, but among professional soldiers, it is probably over 80%.
Seeing this as a swede is really interesting as like 75% of adult males use it here
I used to be good friends with someone at Leicester, I won’t say who. They told about snus years ago and I started to use it as well as many players in their dressing room. Didn’t realise how many people used it until you go on the odd night out or even see players using it in games
Chewing tobacco used to be ubiquitous in Major League Baseball, but then it was banned as harmful. Bizarre that it’s still not banned in footie.
I’m going to take a wild guess that footballers are addicted because, nicotine is addictive.
Who knew? 🤷♂️
This
Nah, must be something else.
Of course, but there is a reason why it's especially common in sports which was the point I guess
“Why are footballers addicted to snus at a disproportionately high rate compared to the general population?” wouldn’t be the snappiest title would it?
@@buckokid5930 “Footballers Are Druggies”
Snappier 👍
as a norwegian it is strange seeing snus talked about like a serius issue in england and other nations when it is so common in all areas in scandinavian culture.
well in North America its taken more so as an issue because several years ago Tony Gwyn who was baseball players and one of the best of his generation died because of cancer stemming from dip which is another form of chewing tobacco
@@qwertyuiop123453993 Dip is a lot more dangerous than snus though since it has way more carcinogens. There were warning labels for cancer on snus cans in Sweden back in the 80s but they had to be removed since it wasn't clear that snus causes cancer to a significant degree. Carcinogen levels in Skoal and Thunder are like 7 times higher than something like General or GR. Dip is also generally weaker than snus so you need to use more of it.
@@qwertyuiop123453993 dip is dried, snus is steamed, dont you have to spit with dip?
@@lommelykt5 yes
@@noha7688
It's also worth noting that while dip is certainly more unhealthy and risky than snus the number of long-term dip users who experience serious health problems is still so tiny that it's basically statistically insignificant, especially when researchers control for concurrent combustible tobacco use (a phenomenon much, much more common in the US than any Scandinavian country, probably a consequence of our long history of cigarette advertisement and consistent representations of combustible tobacco products in US media).
Here in Sweden and Norway it is very common, but I had no idea that is was so common among football players. In the elite youth team where I was playing when I was around 15 we where discouraged from using it, but I have never seen it being discouraged anywhere else here.
Here in Algeria we do have a kind of snus it's called "chemma" it's made mainly of tobacco and many other ingredients but it's sold not like tea bags but in small bags and you add tobacco paper before, many football players here use it and it's quite bigger than the snus the most famous player was Rafik Saifi!
All the Swedish and Norwegian players use Snus.
The effects of nicotine tightens the vains and hinder bloodstream.
Expect from that it's no big deal.
Not healthy, but no big deal
"No doping rules are broken by it"
well no obviously not - it's not a performance enhancing drug. It's a relatively healthy alternative to cigarettes albeit a highly addictive one.
It's just tobacco, table salt and water.
I didn’t know snus was outlawed in Europe before seeing this video. Other than laws, why would it be an issue if someone wants to put a small pouch of tobacco/caffeine under their lip. It’s not harming other around the person say like smoking. I think the health issues are over blown, I’m curious are the players allowed to drink alcohol and caffeine? Obviously not during a game, but on their own time. If they can, then it really makes no since. Sounds more like people in positions of power just wanting to not allow people to use something because they don’t want to consume or like it.
Started using snus at 19 when i had to serve in the military in Norway. Quit 2 years ago at 36. Hardest battle I've ever fought.
I snused until last year. started when i was 15, so around 20 years. And the "facts" you have in this video is truly comical. Probably not worse for your teeth then drinking tee with sugar every day. Definitely not performance enhancing. You get a nicotine buzz in the beginning that disappear after some time of use. Then its more like a habit that chills you out. Never in my life heard that you can get mental health disorder from snus. First week of quitting I was a bit on the edge but not mental health disorder :D
Chill out Athletic and take a snus.
Found the footballer.
Also they are claiming it’s performance enhancing. You’re making up claims to refute.
Is addiction not a type of mental health disorder?
It's like most descriptions of substances and the risk associated with their use. Sure you might not develop something from the snus *directly* but there are already studies that link things like nicotine to the onset of schizophrenia for example.
@@Jayfive276
In a study from Sweden on firefighters, no performance improvement was found in snus users when they were given snus compared to people who did not take snus and who did not take anything at all before the tests.
@@juuglord8509 You misread the studies; nicotine has not been found in any way to cause the onset of schizophrenia, or schizophrenic symptoms. Rather, there's evidence to suggest that nicotine helps *lessen* the symptoms of schizophrenia, so nicotine use (often in the form of tobacco) is high among schizophrenic individuals.
@@Megaultraawesome99 I have not read any studies, admittedly, so cheers for filling in the gaps. My point had more to do with the often vague wording found in summary pieces like these; linked rather than cause in this case, but I was wrong to assume that link had anything to do with causing schizophrenia, so thanks for the correction.
I remember when a snus brand called Lyft started selling in Kenya. Everybody got hooked such that the government had to intervene. I couldn't handle the nicotine high so I never got hooked on it but almost all my friends were on it. Crazy.
I used to go through a 4-dot Lyft Freeze container a day until it got to the point that it made me physically unwell. Well done not getting hooked on that stuff.
Lyft is not snus, thats nicotine pouches.
This is by far the most interesting topic in a whole. Had no idea what snus even was. 😮
My mate started using snus to quit smoking and vaping. I tried some of it last night and it just made me feel light headed, sick and nauseous. It’s probably because I rarely ever use nicotine so my body isn’t used to having it.
I remember how quickly it became popular in school. Every goddamn kid was doing it, the toilet ceiling was literally covered with used snus. Bad old times..
never knew snus was a thing outside of Sweden, kinda interesting to see it being talked about this broadly
even in africa we use it
@@lw4ng4better then cigarettes, honestly it’s the best thing out of Sweden
There is a small distinction not made in this video. There is snus and there are newer non tobacco nicotine pouches which have become increasingly popular.
I think many new age footballers are using the non tobacco stuff. Not saying it isn’t free of issues or addiction (obviously) but I feel there may be a slight difference in potential risk. Current research is being done to look at the newer nicotine pouches so we shall wait and see.
Definitely true, while real snus is banned. You can buy the non tobacco pouches almost anywhere in the UK
If the Nicotine is the main harmful substance, wouldn't it be exactly the same?
@@Fonetiker no because a large part of the negative effects being associated with the tobacco and carcinogens although I’m no
Expert
Chewing tobacco is so common in American baseball culture that there is a gum marketed to kids called "Big League Chew," and it's just regular bubblegum cut up like tobacco. Also, one of the big reasons sunflower seeds are popular in baseball is that chewing seeds keep your mouth occupied so you don't fill it with it dip.
Chewing sunflower seeds?! You can choke on em pretty easily, lol. Turks and some other balkan countries (I think) open it up with their teeth and eat the kernel part as a snack.
Illegal to sell snus in the UK? Just about every shop here has them here
I'm Swedish and an avid 'snusare'.
I play football and I find it to give a boost both mentally and physically.
I started with snus at fifteen when I started to train with the adult team of the handball club I was playing for lol I think most (at least the men) professional Swedish athletes use it.
Kalle Matsson would be the snus equivalent of Sarri and his cigarettes. I don't think I've ever seen him without one in.
Snus is actually banned in Finland, so I think it's more specifically a Swedish thing, that has also spread to Norway to some extent. I don't know about Denmark or Iceland.
Denmark and Norway have special rights to sell snus for example in Norway all of the ”pucks” look the same to take away visual appeal.
In Finland they just made a change in law. You can now order nicotine pouches ( basically snus but with ONLY nicotine - no tobacco etc.) legally to the country. I know that these products have a huge and young audience, which basically means that snus has become legal in Finland too.
Nicotine pouches are wildly popular among athletes too.
A lot of Finnish people still snus. They either take the boat or cross the border. The stores close to the border are some of the biggest sellers of snus in Sweden, because so many Finns will cross.
Nah you just can’t buy it in Finland, my friend did a year of school there and said everyone at his school was addicted to it.
@@rikuluoma3785 Denmark does not have special rights to sell snus and Norways is not in the EU so the ban doesn’t affect them.
@@noha7688 thanks for correcting, I replied without thinking. As a Finn I only know the exacts of our stuff atm. Cheers
Can't sell snus here, but you can sell nicotine pouches and buy them almost everywhere. Basically the same thing. I used to use them, I quit because I didn't want to be dependent and they had become habbit. I managed to quit quite easily because I had a heavier addiction, but that's gone now too. I will say however they seem to be really good in helping people quit smoking, so maybe not entirely evil but don't see them as harmless
there is nothing evil to it, it's bad for your health no doubt about that but so it's coca cola who is one of the main sponsors of UEFA. There was and they are a lot of players who smoke ,
as someone who smokes, it help me reduce anxiety and stress. and i would rather risk getting cancer than dieing due to stress.
I would say it's not the same thing 😅 used in the same way under your lip, i thing you'll be surprised how bad i think real snus would taste for you in comparison
@@elinstalatoren oh really? I assumed it'd taste different but I thought some might actually taste better since theres so many more flavours. But I suppose they all have that base tobacco flavour
It’s not illegal to sell in the UK, I just bought some in Asda
We can buy snus in uk legally, nearly every shop has it legally, the tobacco ones are the only ones banned
Has been commonly available in norway/Sweden for decades.
Much, much more common than sigarettes here in Norway.
Probably around 1/3 young adults snus regularly
The same in Denmark we have kids who start when they are 12
I live in Liverpool and used to work in Chester and the office I was working in had a few people that had played academy football for Manchester United and they were using Snus heavily in their day to day life. It's honestly an epidemic in football.
You see players all the time with it, Tyrone Mings is the one that always comes to my mind when thinking of Snus. He's probably the player stated in the video as being a "high profile England international" that's always seen with it.
I think one was Vardy, he's a known user of it
I was thinking the same. He's always chewing something whenever i see him on the pitch
i thought it was kyle walker or keiren trippier
Sterling and Foden and Leroy Sane aswell as Kyle Walker from the City bunch I think.
Yeah I'd prefer that everyone smoked cigarettes instead!
Oh man. I lived in Sweden for a year and got hooked on this stuff it's brilliant. Completely got me off smoking
Same, after 10 years of smoking/vaping, nicotine pouches made me quit!
@@easy94883 snus is definitely not the same as nicotine pouches
tiden i sverige gjorde dig gott, välkommen tillbaka
wdym snus is illegal to sell in the EU, you can buy it in almost every grocery store in Poland and I presume in other countries as well
In Hungary snus is actually legal to sell if you're of age of course. Athletes and highschoolers are the main buyers of snus, since it doesn't produce smoke, and is less noticable then smoking a cigarette or a vape. If you go to any highschool here, even if it is the most prestigious in the country, you'll find snus in the tables, or if you ask someone who goes there, they'll probably give you snus, or know someone who can give you. Of course it is forbidden to use it in schools, but its so unnoticeable and easy to hide that teachers can't do anything about it
Most Scandinavian product of all time
🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪💪🏼💪🏼
Meatbølls
I'm Swedish and I finally quit it after 15 years on the 1st of june last year. I still use the placebo no nicotine/no tobacco alternatives though XD. Snus is like a friend in the dark as an old friend of mine used to say.
congrats
i'd never start on anything addictive, struggling with obesity for life though
@@JabbarTV1 Not saying you should start, but snus can actually help you lose weight. You become less hungry for sweets and food in general. After I started consuming snus I almost never eat unhealthy anymore.
@@JabbarTV1 sugar is one of the most addictive substances after all. good look with your obesity mate.
You never really quit snus, you just ‘take a break’ from it.
Way to bring awareness
I'm Norwegian and while traveling europe by train i was stopped by military guards in the Gare du Nord train station and had to prove to them that it was in fact tobacco and not illegal drugs.
Here in norway its absolutely normal to find even teens as young as 10 year olds using snus..basically everyone is on snus.. its so prevalent that NOT exempting a snus from a college/friend a snus is seen as strange/unnormal.
Ive seen rashford and greenwood stuffing loads of these in a couple years ago in a club in Manchester. Always wondered why no one talked about the rife use
I believe that there are big misconceptions about snus outside of Scandinavia, which is understandable since it’s only really common there. Snus is in general a bit healthier than cigarettes. Some snus types (all white) doesnt use tobacco though. Snus is addicting but far from a drug or doping. Snus-usage is well established and extremely common among top ice hockey players in NHL, many even play with snus, so i dont see it being a problem for footballers using it as a way to cope with the stress as long as they can mantain their fitness levels. Some could even arguee that hockey is a more demanding sport than football in regards to stamina and it hasnt been a problem there
How is snus far from a drug lol, when it has higher concentrations of nictoine in it. That literally makes it a drug. You're using a stimulant.
@@hazey5736you look at it a little to harsh, you know vape pens have about the same amount of nicotine and compared tho all white snus that uses a medium infused with nicotine it have the same health problem (most likely less because it don't go though your lungs)
Wow, this is very interesting and has a dillema with it. On one hand it is an addicting stimulant which may help players at the highest levels to feel calm and less nervous, with all the stress that comes with using somehting like this. But on the other hand these players may not have had the guidance when they started it (Loanees, academies and such). Hopefully players could be given guidance on such products and help them understand the short term benifit they think they are getting alongwith long term sideeffects.
I've heard that it's tecnically not quite legal to sell snus here in switzerland, but you can still buy them at pretty much every shop that sells other tobaccoproducts as well.
Everyone at works quit smoking and vaping n theyre all on snus. felt like it happened overnight its weird
I think Marcus Rashford uses it. There was a box of snus lying in the background in one of his instagram posts.
As a swede I cant help but find this entire debate absolutely hilarious 😂🤣
Why?
Why?
As a former Brit in Sweden I agree! "Oh no tobacco! How terrible"
@@VioletSkeleton Caue it´s been here for 200 years and there is no proof of even one case of cancer due to snus and the stuff legal to buy in oher countries don´t even have tobacco in it. Only nicotine.
So many people use snus in Sweden so it's a non-issue. In football, hockey, business, and society in general. All shops sell snus
living in sweden its crazy hearing about sus being talked about like a drug its so normal in sweden everbody i know uses snus my parents, friends, my grandad, teachers etc, it is not as dangerous as its being described as in the video it is way safer than smoking and drinking, more people die from drinking, smoking, marijuana its never been looked as dangerous in sweden its carzy people actually belive its dangerous, it can be bad for your teeth and gum thats about it
As a swede I find snus quite fascinating. I never tried it because I saw my dad use it daily when I grew and I realized how hooked he was, then I also learned to dislike the smell of it. But it's very normalized here in Sweden and for many people seem as a great substitute for
South american here. I had never heard of them. In some regions in and near Bolivia it is an ancestral habit to use leaves of 'coca' in similar fashion to SNUS, mainly to help with altitude problems and, in the plains, just to stay awake or traditional practice.
25% of the swedish male population use snus, and that’s the primary reason we have substantially lower rates of lung cancer (and cancer overall), since people use snus instead of smoking. Studies have shown that no one has ever died of cancer in relation to use of snus.
Still baffling that more people don't just go for the 'not being addicted to nicotine' option
@@mattthomas2078 hard to disagree. But it’s a cultural thing here. I started when I was around 16, like almost everyone, and then you just keep going.
The big name player who weaned off after struggling for form sounds like Rashford to me
Yep it was Rashy.
I wouldn't be surprised with his fake good boy image
@@t.bo.e2487 I don't think consuming snus makes him a "fake good boy". He's gone out his way to help tons of people around the country.
My dad got throat cancer which spread to lungs and eventually killed him. he was a heavy snus user, but there is no proof or link that it necessarily was the snus that caused the cancer, as there is alot of cancer running in this family anyways. However, it would probably be best to take health more seriously and if possible try to quit.
I've been snusing 40 grams a day for the past 20 years.
It's maybe time.
I bought a graphics card from a friend who lives in sweden during the shortage and he sent me a few packs of XR Slim White. That stuff is lovely if nicotine is your thing