So I just watched one of Tropical Bobs videos on YouTube and while I’ve seen it before, in watching it again I began to wonder who thinks this fact is legitimate. Bob mentions how one apple seed pinch to each nostril is about 1 Mg of nicotine total. (.5 mg per nostril). Now he says that this is equal to 1 cigarette. My question is, if all of the above is true regarding the amount of nicotine. How is it possible that such small amounts of snuff contain as much nicotine as all the tobacco in a cigarette? Am I just missing something?

Well, providing all of the above information is true, look at it in terms of pulverization. If you were to take all of the tobacco in a cigarette, grind it to a powder, and sieve out the extra - leaving only the finest powder, you’d have a very small amount.

I think you also have to factor in the amount of real nicotine absorbed into the blood stream. Snuff thinly coats the mucus membranes of the sinuses, so that the tobacco is direct contact with blood vessels that can carry the nicotine into the bloodstream. A fairly efficient means of delivery, though not as immediate in it’s results as with inhaling smoke. Smoking on the other hand is wasteful of the tobacco used, and destroys a certain amount of the nicotine in burning. It’s the vaporization of the volatiles behind the burning ember that you’re actually inhaling. Plus the fact that you really don’t smoke the WHOLE cigarette. You take breaks between puffs while the tobacco continues to burn. And on the average, you get somewhere between 10 to 15 puffs off the cigarette in a normal situation. So while the delivery is faster, the waste involved reduces the efficiency.

Yes, the majority of nicotine in a cigarette never gets into your bloodstream. Most of it burns away when the cigarette is smouldering, or is exhaled when smoking. This is the reason why you see those weird smoking machines when they are testing cigarettes. Rather than just extracting and measuring the nicotine in the cigarette, they attempt to emulate the action of smoking to get a more realistic figure. There’s enough nicotine in a cigarette to make you very sick, so it’s good that we don’t absorb it all! Snuff, on the other hand, delivers nicotine more efficiently for the reasons the above posters mentioned. I also think we probably swallow more snuff down the backs of our throats than we care to think about, which would also increase the amount of nicotine we absorb from it. You may feel like snuff doesn’t deliver as much nicotine as smoking, but that’s only because it is delivered slower. You don’t get much of a ‘buzz’, but the nicotine will be there. I experienced this first hand quite by accident last week. I usually can’t smoke at my new job, so I have been snuffing instead and feeling pretty smug about it. I got the opportunity to go for a smoke break last weekend, and although I went outside for a cigarette from force of habit, it made me feel like I was going to throw up and I only smoked it halfway down. The nicotine is there alright…

Actually you get more than 1mg of nicotine when you smoke cigs. I can’t remember where I read this but I read that there is approximately 10-15mg of nicotine per cig and that when you smoke them you only absorb around 2-5mg of nicotine. I could be wrong (but I think I’m right…at least in the same ballpark) so don’t take my word as absolute.

fire is not an efficent way to treat nicotine. Fire kills nicotine. In a cig you’re actualy only getting nic from the vapors and not the smoke. The smoke is basically just leaf smoke. Snuff is the single most effective way to get all the nicotine.

I think it’s just the massive area of the lung, compared with the tiny area in nose that makes for the sense of a quicker delivery from a smoke.

When I was writing all of this I was thinking " how much snuff would one cigarette make if I ground it up". I always feel the N from a cigarette but not really from snuff even though I know it’s there. It’s just so strange how it all works. I know some ppl put sodium bicarbonate in their snuff to up the nicotine absorption but I rather not mess with that stuff ha.

Most cigarettes have over 1 mg of nicotine. The kind I smoke (John Players and Camel) go from 1.5 to around 2.7. Djarums or kretek cigarettes are only 60% tobacco and can have up to 4 mg!

I generally notice the nicotine more from snuff, than from a cigarette. A resonable amnt of snuff will give a buzz, where i never notice smoking(other than a relief from cravings).

To me 100 snuffs in a 25g tin look a bit under estimated. That means .25g per session, or 0.125g per nostrils. That would be massive pinches! I don’t think my fingers can hold that much without spilling a good half in the process. I figured for me a regular snuff size to be between the 0.1g and 0.15g range, let’s say for medium or fine grind like a SP. That would mean there are 60 to a hundred “doses” in a 10g tin and between 170 and 250 in a 25g tin. Anyone that has a scale it’s pretty easy to estimate your usual snuff size. Weight one gram and split it in equal parts until you find each parts to be a good portion for a snuff session.

Um, I think that’s 0.125g per nostril, not 12.5g. Unless you have enormous nostrils… :oD

LOL yeah, .125 is what I meant. I will edit my post. Thanks!

Blood nicotine and cotinine concentrations were measured in 27 volunteers before and after taking snuff. Within 10 minutes after snuffing blood nicotine concentrations were comparable to those obtained after the 10 minutes or so that it takes to smoke a cigarette. Nicotine intake from snuffing was related to the experience of the snuffer. In daily and occasional snuffers increases in plasma nicotine concentrations averaged 77-7 and 12 3 nmol/l (12 6 and 2 0 ng/ml) respectively, while the novices showed no appreciable increase. The increase shown by the daily snuffers was comparable to the average increase of 62 3 nmol/l (101 ng/ml) obtained from a single cigarette by a group of heavy smokers. The peak nicotine concentrations in the daily snuffers were also similar to the peak values in 136 heavy smokers-222-6 and 226-3 nmol/l (36 1 and 36-7 ng/ml), respectively. Unusual multiple-dose snuffing produced massive increases in plasma nicotine to concentrations that have never been recorded in smokers. The similarity of the concentrations produced by regular daily snuffing and regular daily smoking suggests that the plasma nicotine concentration has some controlling influence over the self-regulation of these two quite different forms of tobacco use. The rapid absorption of nicotine from snuff confirms its potential as an acceptable and relatively harmless substitute for smoking. From the NIH

I wonder why the novice snuffers got less nicotine into their bloodstreams? When I first started, although my technique was poor, it was mostly due to snuffing too far back into my sinuses and throat. While this was very uncomfortable, it must certainly have got the snuff into contact with mucous membranes, albeit ones that I didn’t want it to reach… I wonder if, in the novice snuffer, the snuff caused too much mucus production and literally washed the snuff away from the membranes before it had time to transfer much nicotine? I have certainly noticed that my nose runs a lot less now I’m used to it.

But this whole topic depends on how much you pinch size wise ?? Maybe a few pics of what size u pinch would be good to see not just say pea size as all peas are different sizes !!!

These days, I find cigarettes much less satisfying than snus or snuff. I still smoke one occasionally, but I’m usually left wondering why I bothered to light up the damn thing in the first place.

I would think this (while not sounding very scientific) could be a reason, experienced snuffers tend to welcome the burn and the absorbtion of the nic, ie on some level they allow more absorbtion into thier system. While the inexperienced are more passive, even defensive in a way, against the absorbtion/burn. Does this make sense?

Maybe the burn is equivalent to the sensation of the smoke inhalation. It gives a ‘starting point’ from which you judge the experience. This is why I always think using something like dholakia white from a bullet is like smoking a cigarette; similar hand involvement and a definite feeling of a hit.

Kinda like the warmth of a sip 'o whiskey… I do still smoke the ciggies, not as many any more-thanks for snuff. So of course I know the feeling, also like how some ciggy tobaccos seem to have no punch, like a couple of snuffs out there. I find it interesting how the intensity of a puff lasts a moment, but a snuff burn I’ve had for, idk, a couple of minutes. Also it’s interesting how some snuffs burn right away, and others burn/ or become sneezy after 5-10 minutes.

I think he may have interest in the sales of snuff bullets. I have some I got as a newbie,Now they collect dust. I am glad for my new master snuff ! That slave owner ciggy is dead and tried to take me with him.

 It’s not the nicotine that was killing me it was the carcinogens in the pesticides they put on the tobacco plant .Also cig manufactures add extra nicotine to there product to keep you hooked. 

Remove the physical addiction with natural or organic product and satisfy the mental obsession with a substitute action like snuffing.You can stop cigarettes with lobelia smoking  with mullion and colts foot herbs mixed in slowly reducing the lobelia over time to help detox from nicotine withdraw.The million and colts foot help heal the lungs.        

There is more then added nicotine in cigs. There are a lot of chemicals that alter the way you interact with nicotine. Some cigs actualy have chemicals added to lower the pleasure response to nicotine. Why because they don’t want people to actualy enjoy the product because they’re more likely to act like occasionaly cigar smokers. You know have one or two every once and a while for pleasure. Nope they want to make sure you really get as much continueous exposure to nicotine. They also alter the way it is abosrbed to protect brand loyality. You know so you need a camel cricket (or what ever that brand is called.) not just a cigarette.

Hi all, I read the complete post but I am afraid that no one mentioned how much nicotine has a tin. Then as KebAmp said, we could divide to the amount of pinches. Do snuff manufacturers specify that on their web pages? I haven’t found anything yet.

@datahop

Are you interested in these numbers just out of curiosity, or your goal is to do some planning?  For example, like trying to evaluate how much you have/you need and how much time you can do without ordering more?

If it’s the latter, I think your own body is probably the best laboratory to do experiments and to find out. If you know you average g/day intake and average pinch size, all you need to do is apply a factor to each snuff based on the satisfaction feeling upon a snuff portion. If you add up the numbers you will come up with a pretty good approximation of how much days you have available, and therefore you can do some budget planning.

In another thread I have offered to anyone interested a copy of an Excel spreadsheet that does the math for you. Just PM me if you think it can be of any use for ya.

@KebAMP

Thanks for your reply. It is just for curiosity. I will never run out snuff since I am collecting them since 2 months ago (I own 40 different tins right now).

Very few of us will ever run out, but that doesn’t stop us from buying more.

True. And it’s fun to watch the numbers grow.

KebAMP’s spreadsheet is nice. Very well put together. Thanks for sharing!

I’ve just sent you a PM @KebAMP for the spreadsheet! Thanks

@basement_shamen

I think he may have interest in the sales of snuff bullets. I have some I got as a newbie,Now they collect dust. I am glad for my new master snuff ! That slave owner ciggy is dead and tried to take me with him.
 It’s not the nicotine that was killing me it was the carcinogens in the pesticides they put on the tobacco plant .Also cig manufactures add extra nicotine to there product to keep you hooked. 

Remove the physical addiction with natural or organic product and satisfy the mental obsession with a substitute action like snuffing.You can stop cigarettes with lobelia smoking  with mullion and colts foot herbs mixed in slowly reducing the lobelia over time to help detox from nicotine withdraw.The million and colts foot help heal the lungs.        

Surely pesticides are used on snuff tobacco too, no? ok we don’t burn the snuff and create further chemical reactions through combustion but if the tobacco is obtained from countries where pesticides are not so heavily regulated then we are still taking in harmful chemical residue - or have I got it wrong? How do we know where the tobacco comes from in the first place let alone what they use to maintain the crop? The whole industry is shrouded in secrecy. We know that America imports a lot of tobacco and I can probably guess why but this just does not have to be the case. Man I can’t wait for this winter to end so I can finally get my seedlings outside - I hope to produce my own snuff this year.

@Ubert I not sure if the curing of the snuff tobacco , fermentation or pasteurization has anything to do with the elimination of ground contaminates, fertilizers, or pesticides. Tobacco leafs are sticky on the underside ,so relativity they are receptive to the surrounding pollutants. We all die and I am not too concern if I go because using products of pleasure. What don’t kill us make us stronger ,being exposed to some toxins may be positive to adaptation to life on this planet. I know most cigarette tobacco is not up to snuff as the saying goes

Greencrow and Bob, while i enjoyed all posts I found yours here of particular note. I may suggest that committed nicotine users develop more additional receptor sites. Cigarettes are saturated with nicotine enhancing chemicals that are particularly unhealthy. I have no doubt that pesticides are used on tobacco and the irony is nicotine is a pesticide. and human poison. When I lived in Maui I was given a key to 40,000 acres of land to off road on. Much of it was pineapple fields and the resjungle (I had a great full on custom all terrain jeep). When given the key to the fields I was offered 2 cautions 1-do not follow any locals as they are going to their pot plots (and it got really hairy once with a 30-30 brandished at me) 2 do not take any pineapples. Not because the company didn’t have enough to share with me but because the pineapples were covered in so many pesticides that it took special chemical baths to clean them and eating one was toxic. basement_shaman. totally agree. Babies and toddlers exposed to allergens are at less risk of asthma and allergies.

Agreed on all counts and here is more - Cigarettes are engineered specifically to deliver nicotine deep into the lung tissue. This is referred to as “freebase nicotine”. Most cigarettes arent made entirely of tobacco, 50% of a cigarette is a tobacco and chemical slurry known as “mother liquor” that is sprayed onto paper and shredded to make part of the filler. The slurry consists of tobacco extracts, dispersants, etc depending on the cigarette brand and manufacture. 25% of the filler is shredded fresh tobacco, and the remaining 25% is “remnants” - e.g. stems, leaves, floor sweepings, expired cigarettes that have been reprocessed, etc. Pesticides are the least of a cigarette smokers concerns as they are typically neutralized via heat. Its all the byproducts of filler combustion that cause issues, and there are hundreds. Im glad I quit when I did, which was a long time ago before the “FSC” (Fire Safe Cigarette) papers that are now in use and potentially also toxic. Given that a ciggie is engineered to deliver nicotine to the body in a unique and different way from other tobacco products, its hard to make an accurate comparison like Tropical Bob states. But I can tell this much - when I used to smoke ciggies I was always tired and yawning, possibly from oxygen issues while smoking. Snuff keeps me awake. Its an unmentioned and very enjoyable difference.

@asieg33 Dude! I live on Maui. No more pineapple on the West side (I’m presuming that’s your hobbit land stomping fields). Check out the satellite maps. Theres a parking lot at Honolua bay now. And yes the longer you’ve been snuffing the more nicotine you will be able to absorb.