by Joshua Simmet

Created on: December 26, 2009   Last Updated: December 27, 2009

As an occasional smoker and a full time chewer I feel that I have the knowledge to talk about the differences as well as the pros and cons of the two substances. Both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, know as chew, dip and chaw or snuff for certain types, contain the addictive substance nicotine, which can lead to addiction, shocking, I know.

Smoking and chewing have both been linked to cancer, being fingered as the prime culprit in a number of cases of lung and mouth cancer, respectively. They both also have other negative effects on the health of the user as well. Smoking harms the lungs, making it more difficult to breath. It also causes a bad odor on the clothes and breath of the smoker.

Chewing can causes sores on the lips and gums of the chewer, and also when chewing the person has to spit every minute or so to remove the juices from the dip in his lip, this is often done into a spitter which would be a bottle or can. Most people find this repulsive and rightly so. It also leads to a reading in the gums and unsightly stains upon the teeth.

However the reason people smoke or chew is often very similar to the reason people drink or do drugs. They are looking for a little buzz, something to take the edge off of the problems they face at work or in their personal lives. Previously smoking was a relatively cheap and easy way to cope with those problems, however in recent years the governments pogrom against the tobacco industry and smokers has made smoking into a rather expensive habit. Chewing on the other hand remains relatively cheap, with a tin costing less than five dollars on average. Plus the buzz received from chewing is stronger, because the amount of nicotine in chew is quite a bit higher than cigarettes. Also it is easier to chew, since you do not have to adjust your lungs to breathing smoke.

People often forget the dangers of chewing, thinking of it as a danger free version of smoking. This is very much not the case; the dangers of chew are at least equal to, if not exceeding, the dangers of smoking.  Yet I need not tell anyone whether they should or should not smoke or chew. If you think you want to or need to, then try it. There are more dangerous things to try, and you only live once. People are probably going to be livid that I said that, but oh well.

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