On average 20% of high school males in the United States use smokeless (CDC 1993). My brother and many of my friends started using smokeless tobacco before the ninth grade, while I waited until the tenth. Smokeless tobacco was considered “cool” because many of the popular students used it. Smokers were not permitted to play high school sports or smoke during school hours, yet smokeless tobacco users were permitted to do both. Eventually I tried all four types of smokeless tobacco before graduating high school.
Oral snuff was the most popular of the four smokeless tobaccos. My brother and I both started using this type first. Oral snuff was also the most popular in sports because the containers were small and easily stored in team uniforms during games. Added popularity was given to those who had the ability to co
mpact the tobacco by banging their middle finger against the tobacco can with only one hand, and the more one could fit between their cheeks and gum the cooler they were.
While oral snuff was the most popular, loose leaf chew was a strong second place. Loose leaf chew was mostly used by the country and western music crowds. It was also rarely used during school hours, due to the user typically having to spit more frequently than with any other smokeless tobacco. Loose leaf chew had a sweeter taste than oral snuff, so women would sometimes use it while at parties or other social gatherings.
The least popular of the smokeless tobacco was nasal snuff. One of the main reasons it was unpopular was due to the amount to time it took to build a tolerance in their nose. The first several weeks of use would cause the users n