This guy was clearly a cop wanna’ be who didn’t make the cut.
It happened in Rochester, NY.
Sorry for the blank post and this one. Can’t see to make my other words appear in either. Glitchy. This was a duplicate blank post. Thought I should put some words in it at least.
I saw your previous post. That’s why I told you the location.
I saw it to. Then I tried to fix a typo and it disappeared and would not come back. The North East cities seem to be more like that. NY, NJ and MA. Cities and the burbs in general. Rural U.S. is still pretty non-busybody and some of it (where I am) smoker friendly. I live just outside a small southern town now which seems like an alien planet compared to where I was. I see old ladies on their front porch dipping the Swisher scotch They might think I was odd for snuffing it up my nose but they’d be cool with it.
Happened again today. Was out on the porch having morning coffee and the neighbour waved, as I was mid snuff, came over and asked “what the hell are you putting in your nose” explained to her what it was. She then proceeded to tel me (not knowing what it still was mind you) that I was gonna lose my nose, I’d have cancer before I’m 60, blah blah blah. I then told her that I apprciate her concern but I’m not gonna feel bad for something I enjoy doing that’s not in any way illegal. I went inside and proceed to snuff my SG peppermint gold like eating a bowl of Cheerios, hahaha. I have no qualms as to the supposed health risk, I enjoy doing it and I believe there is a reason that people tell me it’s an “old mans tobacco”. Well tell me how they got to be old, eh? Hahaha. We shall over come ignorance of snuff in our lifetime, I feel it. It has to with the way anti- smoking laws are being pumped out. People will realize that its a more than sutible alternative and quite enjoyable…they will see 
yeah I love the that’s an old man tobacco and it will kill you fast. Or in other words do people think or do words just pour out their mouths? I like asking these people where they get their information what studies they’ve read what documentation they got.
The only negative report I have been able to find about dry snuff is a flyer written by _ Dr. John Hill in 1761 _.
He later recanted his report and said that he had written it because he was pissed off at his local tobacconist!
This report by Dr. Hill is the one that I have seen referenced when linking nasal snuff to cancer.
If you choose to dip it and rub it on your gums, that’s an entirely different story…
The chemical reaction between snuff and saliva has been shown to cause carcinogens.
@BenStein: You should tell the neighbors it’s powdered Viagra and that they should not worry about any loud screaming from your house later in the day. <:-P
@BenStein It’s amazing how many of these people who live to be over a hundred use tobacco. Practically all of them. They are always sharp as a tack. You’ll find that anti-tobacco arguments are not at all logical. That is because they are programmed. Programming works better on people who are emotional. Their reactions are emotional. No logic applies. Every time I read a report about or run into anyone in their 90s or 100s, they always sing the gospel of the same trinity. Bacon, tobacco, and whiskey. It doesn’t do much to discourage me. I’m especially interested in the sharp as tack and active part of that equation.
I never seem to get challenged on my tobacco use. If I did I’d just say I do it so I can keep my wits about me since all this tobacco might very well extend my life beyond what I’d planned for. I won’t try to edit this one. Forgive the typos. My keyboard is sticky.
I tell the truth…
My Ear, Nose & Throat Doctor recommended it.
He tried to unplug my Eustachian tubes (unsuccessfully) for about 9 months.
Some W.E. Garrett Scotch did it for me within 36 hours.
“If it works for you, USE IT – even as a preventative because it doesn’t interact with other medications.”
I couldn’t get the doc to write a prescription for tobacco, but I got the strongest possible under the table recommendation.
In the employees defense, what you were doing did appear as a highly suspicious activity. Many people here are chiming in that the public should mind their business, but are failing to realize than when you are in public you are going to be scrutinized by societal norms. The odds were much greater that you would be snorting cocaine or heroin than insufflating tobacco. I certainly wouldn’t wish to have someone doing illegal drugs next to me at a restaurant.
Since I’ve only recently started using snuff, I’ve been careful to maintain discreetness. The social reality is we do care what people think of us and we do care how we are treated and to some level that is with in our own control. I could go around to everyone at work and explain I now enjoy snuff and that it is only tobacco and that would probably be fine, I don’t feel like bothering with that, nor do I wish every random co-worker in passing to ask what I’m sticking up my nose. So I go in the unoccupied bathroom and take a pinch, or do so in my private office. Could someone walk in, possibly and than I would explain. But I’ve minimized my public exposure.
Furthermore look how hard it is to get any decent snuff, I gotta order the bulk of mine from England, I could walk down the main street here to score some coke or heroin lol I guarantee if I took a pinch in front of my local coppers they would question me and probably would test it before releasing me… unfortunately we have a huge heroin problem in my county. Anyway I’m just playing devil’s advocate here and by all means do as you wish. Once I’m more comfortable and knowledgeable of my new hobby I probably will expose myself to strangers when I’m ready to deal with the range of their very natural response be it curiosity or repulsion.
- Donn
The problem is that “highly suspicious activity” is founded, to a large extent, on IGNORNACE.
If you want to EDUCATE the powers that be, probably the most expedient method is by having them caught in EMBARRASSING, WIDELY PUBLICIZED INCIDENTS that illuminate their ignorance. When this has happened a few times, they will make a concerted effort to see that it does not happen by educating the cop on the beat (and others of that ilk).
This is why I made enough noise at the airport to call a cop onto the scene and had a security officer threatened with public arrest! Wa’ja bet the word was quickly passed to other security officers?
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I guess my problem with Ben Stein’s coffee clerk was that he was incredibly rude about the situation, not only before but after he was told that it was tobacco. His unsolicited programmed comments were about tobacco and not illegal drugs. I don’t snuff in public but then I don’t go out in public all that often because I work at home.
When I lived in New England, I ran into similar responses about smoking, something along with snuffing (until recently) actually has been a societal norm for centuries. Then again, as stated in my missing comment, I felt it was pretty easy to get the side eye in MA for just about anything. I once got a side walk lecture for not having toenail polish on. Clerks wrinkling their nose and making comments after I walk away about reeking (they love the word reek) of cigarettes (cigars actually but they are dim) etc. That doesn’t happen where I am now.
Buy a Toque Tee shirt http://www.toquesnuff.com/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=prodshow&ref=toque-tshirt. That should strike a conversation
@haemony I too live in MA, the Berkshires. I definitely agree that the employee was very rude, I personally would have spoken to the manager and explained the transgression. As to custom, snuff hasn’t been a common practice in the states since colonial days 
I have lived in states from Montana to Florida to currently Massachusetts and in all my life and travels I’ve never seen anyone use snuff once.
I think they assumed since his name is Ben Stein he is thee Ben Stein and since he’s all hollywood he must be doing lots of cocaine. That’s what I think now.
Just because I wrote speeches for Nixon and Reagan doesn’t mean I have ben stein money to go all Hollywood at the local coffee shop lol
Hmm. I have but I know it’s not common in the U.S. in this century. For common use, I’d say more like mid to late 1800s and winding down towards the turn of the century. It’s true that after that Americans preferred to dip it and snuff was mostly replaced by cigarettes and chew. I wonder why. Nasal snuff appears frequently enough in American literature and 19th to early 20th century ads (something I look at all day in my business) and even doctor’s prescriptions, silent films, and so forth that it was probably at least familiar to the generation before ours. My grandmother had her mother’s snuff box collection. I guess to me that is recent but I am a weirdo and I admit that my perspective is a but wider than your average youngin’. :)
Attitudes change and can be changed very quickly, less than one generation now and it all goes down the memory hole. 10 years ago I’d never have believed people would be banned from smoking outside or refused employment or actually believe there is such a thing as third hand smoke or any of those nutty things.
I think they took away the Congressional snuff box in the 1930s. I wonder if they dipped it or snuffed it. The House of Commons still has one. They claim no one uses it.
Strangely enough, I have yet to experience any kind of harassment for using snuff, despite using it pretty much wherever I darn well please (except for in front of the kids. I don’t want to promote tobacco use to them. If they decide to start smoking cigarettes, I’ll break it all out in the open and display PROPER tobacco use to them). I have, however, been stopped by a cop while walking down the street smoking a pipe. He accused me of smoking illegal substances, and made me tap my pipe out to prove it was tobacco. To be fair, I was in my mid twenties at the time, had a large goatee and some tats, and while I’ve been sober two years and eight months now, at THAT time probably was otherwise in posession of some manner of illegal substances.
I’m still fairly new to snuff, and fairly discreet about it myself when at work or in public. I’ll take a pinch in my car in the parking lot before going into a store. Or wait until I get to a bathroom or to my car after a meal at a restaurant. I wish it was a common enough practice that I felt more comfortable about doing it more publicly. But, Ben’s story and some of your stories sort of reinforce my worry that I will end up causing unexpected drama.
I think as I get more experience, I’ll find places I’m comfortable taking a pinch. Perhaps the pub, or while in a store. But, even then, I think its important to be fairly casual and nonchalant about it, so that it doesn’t draw unwanted attention.
On another note, I’m always surprised at the lack of boundaries people have. They see someone smoking or chewing, and they’ll start into them about how they are going to die. That sort of lack of manners much too prevalent. There are food nazi’s, tobacco nazi’s, and all manner of nazi’s that run about making themselves feel better by telling other people how wrong the other people are, and how enlightened they are. I tend to very aggressively tell these people to mind their own business, and that I don’t want to hear their “crap.”
Mark