Swiss Bureaucrats Ban Swedish Snus

Catching even Swiss legislators and consumers by surprise, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) redefined the definition of “smokeless tobacco” to specifically ban Swedish snus and similarly packaged products…..

Swiss BAG bans snus:  clarification or creating new law?

In Article 5 of the 27 October 2004 Decree on Tobacco Products, Switzerland carved out an excemption for the sale and import of “chewing tobacco”.  According to BAG, the exact definition of “chewing tobacco” is apparently missing in the declaration.

Most likely Anti-All-Tobacco or at least Anti-Snus Extremists made BAG aware that snus from Denmark and Sweden as well as other non-chewing types of smokeless tobacco were being sold into Switzerland as chewing tobacco or snuff.

Like any bureaucracy having a loophole shoved in their face, BAG’s reaction was to investigate and decide for Sweden what “chewing tobacco” was legal and what was illegal.