Snus and The Art of Suppression
Why is snus banned in the European Union? How did it happen? Snusforumet, in partnership with author and commentator Christopher Snowdon, brings you the inside story of snus and the art of suppression and how it gave birth to one of the EU’s more confounding policies.
First published in 2011, The Art of Suppression: Pleasure, Panic and Prohibition since 1800 by author and commentator Christopher Snowdon, looks at several attempts by policymakers and activists to enact various bans over the last two centuries.
To mark the ten-year anniversary of the book, Snowdon and Snusforumet have joined together to revisit the book’s chapter detailing the story behind the EU snus ban.
In addition to an exclusive interview with Snusforumet, Snowdon has granted permission to have the book’s chapter on snus published on Snusforumet so that more people can be made aware of what he calls a “shameful episode” in the EU’s history.
“There’s no excuse for people involved in policymaking not to be aware of what’s happened in Sweden and Norway with snus,” Snowdon tells Snusforumet
Below, Snusforumet readers can access excerpts from the story behind the EU snus ban as written in Snowdon’s book. However, Snusforumet subscribers get instant access to the whole story. Click here to subscribe to Snusforumet and get the entire chapter on snus from The Art of Suppression emailed straight to your inbox.
Christopher Snowdon interview
Snus ban a ‘shameful episode’ in EU history
In an exclusive interview with Snusforumet, author and commentator Christopher Snowdon, reflects on the legacy of the EU snus ban. READ MORE HERE.
Snus and the Art of Suppression
Part 1 – Snus: If you can, ban (June 30)
A £200,000 government grant to convert a disused clock factory into a smokeless tobacco warehouse unleashed a chain of events that led to one of the strangest and most self-defeating prohibitions in recent history. READ MORE HERE.
Part 2 – The EU ban (July 7)
The Oral Snuff (Safety) Regulations had a profound effect on the UK’s one and only manufacturer of oral snuff—US Tobacco Inc.—which found itself criminalised and sent home by the same government that had subsidised and courted it just four years earlier. READ MORE HERE.
Part 3 – Harm reduction (July 14)
If, as was by now apparent, the use of moist snuff did not cause disease, the prohibition of snus was not merely arbitrary, it was perversely counter-productive. READ MORE HERE.
Part 4 -The alliance against snus (July 21)
Not everyone was able to change their mind in response to changing evidence. In the same year, the US Surgeon General said: “There is no significant scientific evidence that suggests smokeless tobacco is a safer alternative to cigarettes.” READ MORE HERE.
Part 5 – The report that nearly was (July 28)
The original version of the ENSP report was by no means an unequivocal endorsement of snus in harm reduction. Instead, it weighed up the evidence and accepted that there were cogent arguments on both sides. READ MORE HERE.
Part 6 – Scientists for prohibition (August 4)
While the EU and the Swedish health establishment were going to great lengths to prop up the ban on oral snuff, others saw the prohibition as an accident of history which needed putting right. READ MORE HERE.
Part 7 – First, tell the truth (August 11)
The banning of snus, and the elaborate efforts made by the custodians of public health to maintain the ban, is one of the more baffling prohibitions of the twentieth century. READ MORE HERE.
About The Art of Suppression
The Art of Suppression: Pleasure, Panic and Prohibition since 1800 was published in 2011 by Little Dice. The book is a history of prohibitions that looks at how bans begin, who instigates them, and why they fail. The book is available for purchase here via Amazon.
About Christopher Snowdon
Christopher Snowdon is the head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs. His research focuses on social freedoms, prohibition, and policy-based evidence. He is a regular columnist for EA magazine and an occasional contributor to Spiked, The Critic, and the Telegraph. He often appears on TV and radio discussing social and economic issues.
Snowdon is the editor of the Nanny State Index and the author of six books: Polemics (2020), Killjoys (2017), Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism (2015), The Art of Suppression (2011), The Spirit Level Delusion (2010) and Velvet Glove, Iron Fist (2009). He has also written more than a dozen reports for the Institute of Economic Affairs including ‘Drinking, Fast and Slow’, ‘The Proof of the Pudding: Denmark’s Fat Tax Fiasco’, ‘Cheap as Chips’, ‘Sock Puppets’, and ‘Closing Time: Who’s killing the British pub?’.
He blogs at Velvet Glove, Iron Fist. More information is available at christophersnowdon.com.
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