Swedish Match pulls Lab Series 06 snus out of production

On Friday, August 12th, my favorite snus store offered for sale two new long portion snuses from the Swedish Match Lab Series; 05 Strong White Portion and 06 Extra Strong Portion. By Monday, September 18th, the Lab Series 06 was sold out and Swedish Match was not shipping or accepting reorders.

It turned out that 06 Extra Strong Portion was going back to the Lab for a make-over. Availability of 06 version 2 was estimated at best, three to four weeks; at worst "in October".

I was puzzled and potentially embarrassed by this development. I first tried the Lab Series 06 in late August during my trip to Scandinavia. Admittedly, I was over the legal alcohol limit at the time but I thoroughly enjoyed 06. The portions were moister than is typical for the Lab Series but I assumed that was to enhance the free nicotine level. Swedish Match rated 06 at 20mg/portion total nicotine; their strongest snus to date.

Even sober, I found myself really liking 06 as I finished the can over the next three days. I had not tried the 05 strong white long portion version yet since our SnusCIA Agent in Copenhagen forgot to bring me a can during my visit. He has since been reassigned to our field office in Yemen, but that is another story for another time.

Read more: Lab Series 06 Extra Strong Portion Snus goes back to the Lab

Non-Face-to-Face Sale of Tobacco Products and Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing of Tobacco Products by FDA

On Monday, September 12th,  FDA informed the tobacco industry, anti-tobacco groups, and interested parties that they are preparing to consider rules which will further regulate non-face-to-face sale and distribution of tobacco products (e.g. E-commerce).  Equal focus will be paid to the advertising, promotion and marketing of tobacco products sold via non-face-to-face exchange.

FDA admits in this advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) that the enactment of the PACT Act effectively satisfied the requirements of the Tobacco Act by requiring positive age verification and adult signatures for accepting tobacco product deliveries.  Their alleged concern is whether these are enough to prevent minors from illegally obtaining tobacco products, particularly by category.

The anti-all-tobacco extremists are in something of a horrified uproar that while cigarette smoking rates are falling in the US, almost 50% of those quitting are switching to snus and other smokeless reduced harm tobacco products.  It doesn't matter to anti-tobacco profiteer Matt Myers in particular that reduced harm cigarette alternatives are at least 90% to as much as 99% less harmful to smokers than cigarettes.

It doesn't matter to the anti-all-tobacco extremists that the other 50% who stop smoking using patches, gum, or pills overwhelmingly return to cigarettes within a year....unless they finally discover snus or other smokeless alternatives.

Read more: FDA Targets Internet Tobacco Sales and Advertising

While the US Congress and State Legislators gleefully consider increasing the punitive tobacco taxes on Americans, here's some news from Germany which should give them pause. It won't, but it should.

According to a new German customs report leaked to the press, raising tobacco taxes only encourages smokers to buy illegal cigarettes. While the report focused on cigarettes, its findings should logically apply to smokeless tobacco, snus, cigars, pipe tobacco and the rest.

The report found that smokers did not respond to government health and budget policies by quitting smoking, but by "turning even more deliberately to illegal cigarettes." German customs officials found that the increased demand for smuggled tobacco not only meant that illegal cigarettes were easier to get, but that children and young people had easier access to them.

Did anyone bother to tell Matthew Myers or the other anti-all-tobacco extremists supposedly motivated by "saving the children"?

Read more: Shocking Report: Higher Tobacco Taxes Increases Black Market Tobacco Sales!

Swedish Snus, Pride and Profit

Swedish Match cares about the bottom line.  Sorry to tell this to those of you who thought Swedish Match wasn't a big publicly owned company intent on making profits.  The difference to most American eyes is how they get there.

I learned a lot on my recent trip to Sweden to visit two of Swedish Match’s production facilities. I learned a lot about the company’s history as well as some of their vision/goals for the future. While they were guarded about a sharing too much, they were almost transparent compared to American tobacco companies.

We literally saw two things in Sweden that we were told that we didn't see and couldn't talk about. Both are finally available on-line and shortly on Norwegian store shelves, namely Lab Series 05 Strong Portion and 06 Extra Strong Portion snus. Also available on-line and soon over the counter in American convenience stores are the new General Nordic Mint and Classic Blend snus. So those horses have already left the barn.

Read more: Swedish Match Cares

The SnusCENTRAL Snus News Letter for August 2011.

In this issue:  Lots of new snus being released by Swedish Match and V2 Tobacco, Joakim Blom Leaves Swedish Match, new snus videos by Julls of SnusCENTRAL YouTube and more!

Don't subscribe to the SnusCENTRAL Newsletter yet?  Rectify that mistake by signing up now!  Don't worry:  we won't spam you and it's free.  We're supposed to publish them monthly, but in reality we only send newsletters out once or twice every six to eight weeks.

Read more: SnusCENTRAL Snus News Letter for August 2011