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Deryl Austin Cram

Professor Ibarra
Life, Society & Drugs
8 November 2016
Smokeless Tobacco Research Paper
Smokeless tobacco is a cultural tradition along side an addiction. Smokeless tobacco, or
chewing tobacco, refers to snuff, long cut and leaves. The long cut tobacco is the most
common, it is seen in smaller circular cans that look like hockey pucks. The main producers of
smokeless tobacco are Grizzly, Copenhagen, Skoal, Redman, Levi Garrett and smaller
companies such as Kodiak and Beech Nut. The tobacco is cut short, but longer than snuff, or is
seen in pouches and is placed in the front of the lip followed by dark spit. Snuff comes in the
same can but has two possibilities. The user can either buy the very fine cut tobacco that can be
placed in the mouth or there is an alternative type that can be inhaled through the nose in order to
receive the same effect. Tobacco leaves are simply the uncut tobacco leaves with added flavoring
that is common in baseball to chew with gum, as you can take larger amounts and it is easier to
control in the users mouth. No matter which smokeless tobacco product the user purchases and
consumes, the product is addictive. Tobacco as a whole has risen to the top curable disease that
leads to death, within the United States (CDC). Smokeless tobacco is a very popular stereotype
portrayed in southern movies and movies about baseball. That stereotype is also very true. If one
were to attend a baseball game, there is a very good chance that at least half of the players and
coaches will be using smokeless tobacco. There are activists and corporations pushing for
tobacco to be banned, like CVS grocery store and minor league baseball. CVS has just begun to
not sell the product or carry the product any longer. As for Major League Baseball, the league is

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trying to enforce rules that help players quit at a younger age. The minor leagues, teams owned
by major league teams in order to produce and train future players, carry a rule that there is no
tobacco allowed and a fine and suspension is the punishment. Multiple friends of mine have
played throughout the minor leagues and word from them is that the rule is not enforced
regularly as many of the umpires enforcing the rule use smokeless tobacco as well, on top of
that, it is hard to tell a grown man to stop an addiction that is carried by many of his peers and
figures of authority, such as his managers and teammates.
Tobacco as a whole seems manageable for the United States when factoring in all the
killer diseases that strike our nation that are incurable. But, Tobacco use is the leading
preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), [tobacco] results in more than 480,000 premature
deaths in the United States each yearabout 1 in every 5 U.S. deathsand an additional 16
million people suffer with a serious illness caused by smoking. In fact, for every one person who
dies from tobacco usage, about 30 more suffer from at least one serious tobacco-related illness
(DrugFacts). The life expectancy for tobacco users versus non-tobacco users is cut by ten years.
But with that statistic, if the user can quit the addiction to the product before the age of forty it
reduces the risk of dying from tobacco-related disease by about 90% (CDC). On top of a
shortened life expectancy, there are short term effects such as; yellow teeth, receding gum lines,
bad breath and little white/ yellow sores that form on the inside of lip. Americans spent $2.6
billion dollars on smokeless tobacco products in 2005. 2.6 billion dollars on a small product like
nicotine that can lead the user to death after suffering through many of the short-term effects.
Although smokeless tobacco products do not appear similar to cigarettes or cigars, nicotine is the
main weapon that addicts the users. Nicotine is very powerful and affects many people across the

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United States. To be precise, 8.9 million people, (3.5 percent) used smokeless tobacco of people
in the United States have used a smokeless tobacco product.
Upon entering the bloodstream, nicotine immediately stimulates the adrenal glands to
release the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline). Epinephrine stimulates the central nervous system
and increases blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. Similar to other addictive drugs like
cocaine and heroin, nicotine increases levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which affects the
brain pathways that control reward and pleasure. For many tobacco users, long-term brain
changes induced by continued nicotine exposure result in addiction, a condition of compulsive
drug seeking and use, even in the face of negative consequences. Smokeless tobacco (such as
chewing tobacco and snuff) increases the risk of cancer, especially oral cancers. Although
quitting can be difficult, the health benefits of smoking cessation are immediate and substantial,
including reduced risk for cancers, heart disease, and stroke. Nicotine from chewing tobacco
takes a little longer to reach the brain, as it must first be absorbed into the bloodstream through
the gums. At any rate, when nicotine reaches the brain, it acts as a stimulant, causing the brain to
release excess neurotransmitters including dopamine - a neurotransmitter associated with
pleasure and motivation. A person can become addicted to nicotine even after just a few uses
because the brain adjusts itself and develops a level of nicotine tolerance that the addict must
reach in order to maintain the feeling of comfort. Once this comfort level has been established, a
lack of nicotine in the brain will cause uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms in the user. These
withdrawal symptoms can make the user edgy and irritable, and using tobacco while in this state
will have a sedative effect on the user (Cesar). This is a scary statistic being that 8.6 percent of
8th graders have tried a tobacco product in their lifetime, followed by almost one percent of those
8th graders using tobacco products daily (DrugAbuse). Going further, kids from ages twelve and

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older are at sixteen percent for tobacco use in his or her lifetime. When tobacco, or any addictive
product, is tried or consumed at a young age there is a higher risk of addiction throughout life.

If an adult has spent time around a child, at any age but a male around the ages of ten to
twelve, it is easy to see that the child will have an idol to look up towards. Whether that idol be a
parent, musician or athlete, there is someone that kid wants to be like. For example, I wanted to
be like Albert Pujols when I grew up. Even until this day I have professional baseball players I
want to be like. I would warm up like them, get the gear they used, everything. But as I got older
I started to notice more things or characteristics about the players I idolized. Chris Davis is
someone I truly envy on the baseball field. When looking at the face of Chris Davis, a huge man
that hits balls out of entire stadiums, you may see that his lip and cheek look as if he is hiding a
golf ball inside. I did not start chewing tobacco because of Chris Davis but Im sure seeing him
use the product did not help. There are many different cultures that come behind the product of
chewing tobacco. Baseball as a culture, has had chewing tobacco around and spit into the fine
clay dirt for many years, dating as far back to TV time and the live ball era. Another culture
popular for using chewing tobacco is the southern culture. Many southern, western movies have
scenes with long stare downs ended with the dark spit from chewing tobacco. But chewing
tobacco is almost trapped within these cultures. Football players cannot chew and spit because of
the mask and consistent contact. Basketball players cannot spit on the court and may end up
getting bumped throughout the game. But baseball there is just soft dirt and green grass where
tobacco can be hidden and is just a perk. That goes along with the southern culture, farming,
bushes, dirt, good ole boys. Smokeless tobacco is not meant to be glamourous as cigarettes can
be put on to me, just like the southern men that fit the stereotype and culture. Kids grow up in

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and attach to different cultures where smokeless tobacco may be around on a consistent basis,
even being used by people kids may or may not idolize that can have a direct effect on their
usage in the future.
Conclusively, smokeless tobacco is a cultural addiction that is shown to children. From
January 1st, 2016, close to three hundred thousand United States citizens have died due to
tobacco related products and the number will continue to climb. Tobacco use kills approximately
440,000 Americans each year, with one in every five U.S. deaths the result of tobacco. Smoking
harms nearly every organ in the body, causes many diseases, and compromises smokers health
in general. Nicotine, a component of tobacco, is the primary reason that tobacco is addictive,
although cigarette smoke contains many other dangerous chemicals, including tar, carbon
monoxide, acetaldehyde, nitrosamines, and more. The amount of nicotine absorbed from
smokeless tobacco is 3-4 times that delivered by a cigarette, and while nicotine is absorbed more
slowly from smokeless tobacco, more nicotine per dose is absorbed and stays in the bloodstream
for longer. There are several effective smoking cessation treatments, including
pharmacotherapies such as nicotine replacement therapy (including nicotine gum, patches or
lozenges), buproprion SR (Zyban), Varenicline (Chantix), as well as individual and group
counseling, which may also prove useful for people trying to quit smokeless tobacco. In addition,
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has established a national telephone quitline, 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), to assist users of tobacco seeking information and
assistance in quitting and a new website (www.smokefree.gov) which offers online advice and
downloadable information to make cessation easier. There are many different corporations and
people that see smokeless tobacco for the deadly addiction that it is and seek a resolution.

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http://www.fromgrieftoaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Smokeless-tobacco-NIDA.pdf
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/cigarettes-other-tobacco-products
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality
/
Https://www.facebook.com/NIDANIH. "Tobacco and Other Substance Behaviors Among Street
Children." National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct.
2016./.latest_citation_text
https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/tobacco-nicotine
http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/tobacco.asp