[imagesource:pixabay]

The new drug of choice among UK football players appears to be a little-known tobacco pouch called “snus”.

It has become so prevalent that concern has been mounting across the Premier League, reports VICE, as claims over dozens of footballers becoming addicted to the semi-legal tobacco product pour in.

Snus comes in the form of small, tea bag-looking, postage stamp-sized pouches of moist powdered tobacco to be inserted behind the lip near the gum where the nicotine from the tobacco is released directly into the bloodstream.

This method of use sticks out like a sore thumb and is causing a stir as several players have been spotted on camera snus-ing.

Watch Bertrand Traore, the Aston Villa forward, pop something behind his upper lips while on the subs’ bench recently:

Bertrand Traoré il a calé son snus en sous-marin 😭 pic.twitter.com/WkS5at0Uua

— Alm🗣 (@Ali1cinq) February 18, 2023

Traore denies it was snus, but the connection is obvious:

According to The Athletic, Premier League players have been openly using the cigarette alternative in the dressing room. At some clubs it has become increasingly popular among teenage academy players, some of whom use it while playing.

While some players find using snus a way to relax before matches, others use higher-strength brands for a “lift” which they feel gives them an extra edge on the pitch.

It became such a problem in US baseball that the governing body banned the product in 2018 over fears of it being linked to oral cancer.

In the UK and Europe, snus is legal to use but illegal to make and sell under a 1992 European Union law, although it is readily available online.

Sweden is the only EU country exempt from the law, and it has consequently become a huge part of day-to-day life, legally sold as a popular cigarette alternative among young people, driving down daily smoking rates to 4%.

It is, at the end of the day, better than smoking:

The Royal College of Physicians has said snus is “1,000 times less harmful than cigarettes” and the product has a good reputation on social media.

That is the argument that sports players are using to run with it – even though the substance isn’t exactly illegal:

Though nicotine is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s monitoring list, it is not among the organisation’s banned substances. As such, players using snus aren’t breaking any rules other than those that may have been set internally at their clubs.

Athletes prefer snus to smoking, mainly because it doesn’t inhibit fitness by damaging the lungs. There is broad agreement that using snus is considerably less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

But it is highly addictive and quickly becoming a problem:

But now the UK’s Professional Players Association (PFA) said that while a growing number of players are using snus, “several” are receiving help for addiction.

Lee Johnson, the manager of Hibernian in Scotland, told The Athletic he estimates up to 40 percent of all players are using the drug. “It’s getting worse and we need to educate these lads because it’s highly addictive,” he said. “I don’t feel they understand the true threat of it over the long term.”

A few managers and coaches also feel that snus can harm a player’s form, noting that the “attitude the players had, the energy they had out on the pitch, was harmed by doing snus pre-match”, according to one active non-league player.

Snus may not be risk-free but it is hugely popular and notably better than sniffing cocaine and breathing in cigarette smoke.

In South Africa, any advertising of tobacco products has been prohibited since 2001, and that recently included snus after 2006, when subsidiaries of SM, Leonard Dingler and Brasant, tried to argue the definition of snus under SA law so as to be allowed to advertise.

It came down to the word ‘sucking‘ – which was explored in great detail. At the end of the day, snus was declared a tobacco product and is illegal to advertise.

As for whether it is legal to use here in SA? It is. You can buy a whole range of snus products on this website if you so wish.

[sources:vice]