“You’ve got a point, politicians and bureaucrats love to find something to demonize so they can make a name for themselves. I remember a couple of years back (in my ignorant state of Oklahoma), attention was drawn by a pious ass in our state congress to a little known plant called Salvia Divinorum.” The television presenter Bruce Parry used Salvia in a shaman ritual in a BBC series called the tribe (he presented a gift of snuff to a another tribe in Africa). Apparently it’s legal in most countries and US states, but Oklahoma clearly has an issue. I’m not informed enough to make a judgement on its potential dangers. “I can only hope that the EU and it’s member countries show themselves to be a bit more rational than most of the U.S. state and federal branches of government,” The EU removed customs and excise duty on snuff because their research showed that it was unlikely to cause cancer and other diseases associated with smoking. One expected, therefore, that the EU libel ‘Causes Cancer’ suddenly appearing on all snuff products was the prelude to a pogrom on snuff takers. However, medical opinion (including that of the influential medical journal ‘The Lancet‘) prevailed on that occasion and the appellation was changed to the current wording. For most of my snuff career there was no warning at all. (I note from pictures that appear on this site that some users remove the warning on principle.) Much of the machiavellian machinations of the un-elected EU mandarins in the Commission reflects irrationality. For example, EU Commission Regulation No. 1277/88 told us that a “cucumber must not bend more than 10 millimetres per 10 centimetres (0.4 inches per 4 inches) in length.” . This was just one of hundreds of utterly ridiculous regulations concerning the shape of fruit and vegetables. The set of laws has been scrapped, but decades of insanity saw astronomical quantities of foodstuffs destroyed simply because of its natural appearance. Most people don’t have a clue who their MEP is or who ‘represents’ their nation on the Commission.
I know we have the Right Royal High Lord Twat of Twattington aka Peter Mandelson is/was on the EU comission for the UK. Now the EU CONstitution/Treaty of Lisbon is in effect doesn’t it make you sleep soundly at night knowing we have right proper pricks like Mandelson, Kinnock et al looking after our welfare. BTW I realise sarcasm doesn’t come across well in written posts but you can be assured that this one was laden with it. Stefan
PS. That doesn’t mean to say I support the EU, the total opposite! I want out and I want out now! Stefan
“Much of the machiavellian machinations of the un-elected EU mandarins in the Commission reflects irrationality. For example, EU Commission Regulation No. 1277/88 told us that a “cucumber must not bend more than 10 millimetres per 10 centimetres (0.4 inches per 4 inches) in length.” . This was just one of hundreds of utterly ridiculous regulations concerning the shape of fruit and vegetables. The set of laws has been scrapped, but decades of insanity saw astronomical quantities of foodstuffs destroyed simply because of its natural appearance. Most people don’t have a clue who their MEP is or who ‘represents’ their nation on the Commission.” So from what I can gather on the subject, there’s not much positive public sentiment for the EU… I do have question for anyone who might be able to shed some light on the subject… About a year ago there was a new law passed in the U.S. that required all cigarettes to conform to “Fire Safe Standards” (an oxymoron of a statement, yes) and it really ruined the taste of tobacco. So my friend and I found a website that sold cigarettes from somewhere in Europe. We ordered some and when they arrived we quickly found out that they were from the small nation of Moldova. We made several orders with no problem until one day we went to put in an order and suddenly it would not allow any orders from America. Was this due to some kind of new EU requlation or would that have to be a law specific to Moldova?
mryan09: that was my video - think i must have come last in that competition as i didn’t get one vote 
lol I used less snuff when i smoked, now i just snuff average around 25g or so a week.
Every time I try to become an enlightened, political liberal (in the modern sense of the term), I hear something about tobacco, herb or drug control emmanating from the big government liberal establishment that invariably returns me to my Libertarian, Anarchist roots. As we used to say back in the 70s when certain political activists were trying to enlist our support “We don’t want power; we just want power to go away.” Keep snuff a secret; look what’s happening to K2 now that blue stocking, puckered asshole “moralist” politicians and beauracrats have found out about it.
The cucumber thing was established to protect women from hurting themselves.
@juxtaposer Wouldn’t a smart woman just go to her local “toy store” instead?
Moldova is not in the EU. I wouldn’t trust anything coming from there. I certainly wouldn’t send them credit information. FSC laws are state by state. Not a federal level law. Most companies did not want the added cost of producing two types of cigarettes, so they went to the FSC for universal distribution. I don’t know about this cucumber business, but most crazy sounding laws are only crazy out of context. I imagine it was to make sure people weren’t selling zuchinnis and calling them cucumbers or something like that. In law everythiing has to have a definition (a legal definition) before it can be talked about. Sometimes it includes measurements to create the limits of the thing that is being defined. I deal with maritime law frequently and although you might use the term ship and boat liberally and know the difference between the two, legally speaking both words are nonsense. Everything is “vessel” and different laws apply depending on lengths and weights of “vessels”. Really getting OT here…
The whole cucumber issue was just misinformation spread by the Daily Mail as I recall, and they have a known agenda. The regulations were about classifying cucumbers so that consumers know what grade they are getting, nothing to do with banning imperfect ones. Tabloid journalism…
As I suspected. Taken out of context for the purpose of propaganda. Typical.
“The whole cucumber issue was just misinformation spread by the Daily Mail as I recall, and they have a known agenda. The regulations were about classifying cucumbers so that consumers know what grade they are getting, nothing to do with banning imperfect ones. Tabloid journalism.” Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Agriculture Commissioner must be a reader of the Daily Mail. Regarding his comments on regulations - “More seriously, this is a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape. We don’t need to regulate this sort of thing at EU level … It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away just because they are the ‘wrong’ size and shape.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55T2OB20090630
Maybe the cucumber lasted to long and hubby was jealous.
All I can say is that the 2 cartons of lucky strikes I got from Moldova were the best tasting cigarettes I’ve ever had… @pieter claassen Jealous of a cucumber? It doesn’t have a motor in it…
Crazy English Tory stuff about cucumbers, nobody actually couldn’t care less. But seriously, tobacco-wise ex-Soviet Union is grand, that is one thing commies always kept up and capitalist decadence only made things better later. Russian cigarettes especially are good with distinctive character, even the brands made under license are better than most of western produce. Still remembering that! And really missing a smoke now, Belomor Kanal, Samson rollie or Pall Mall plain. Not good.
i find the ammount of snuff i consume vairies with the strength and texture of the snuff. a strong fine snuff will last me a lot longer than a subtly flavoured snuff mild snuff.