Melt-in-your-Mouth Tobacco an Unsavory Practice

TIME magazine reported recently that big-name tobacco brands are ramping up their presence in the dissolvable tobacco game, and consumers in test markets, as well as regulators, are trying to figure out what make of the new products.

In early 2011, in Colorado and North Carolina, R.J. Reynolds began test-marketing Camel-branded wares — tobacco compressed into toothpicks, mints and strips that dissolve in your mouth. Unlike cigarettes, they produce no smoke, and unlike smokeless tobacco, you don't have to spit when you use them. Aimed at adult smokers who want a nicotine kick in cigarette-free zones, Camel ads tout the products with the tag line, "What you want, when you want, where you want." Last week, the Colorado Department of Public Health held a hearing to discuss the problem of who might want them: namely, kids and teens. Stephanie Walton of the state's health department, who specializes in youth tobacco prevention, laid out the potential draws: youth are price- and brand-oriented, she said, and Camel Sticks, Orbs and Strips are selling in Colorado for about $2.50 for a 12-pack, compared to roughly $5 for a pack of cigarettes.

Camel is also a recognizable brand, as are Marlboro and Skoal, which have been test-marketing their own dissolvable "tobacco sticks" in Kansas, and are therefore more likely to attract younger customers. Although other dissolvable tobacco products have been on the market for a decade, including Ariva and Stonewall, both manufactured by Star Scientific, they have not been advertised like Camel products and are likely unknown to the average teenager (or adult for that matter).

The new dissolvables are all mint-flavored, like "a really weak Listerine breath strip, with a cigarette undertone," as a Colorado man sampling Camel Strips at recent beer festival described the experience for a local media station — another draw for youths, particularly young girls. They're also small and easy to conceal.

However, R.J. Reynolds says the products are made for and marketed to adults and will be sold in convenience stores and smoke shops right alongside other tobacco products, with the same age restrictions and health warnings.

In response to critics' suggestions that the products appear too much like little treats, R.J. Reynolds spokesman Richard Smith counters, "Those who keep referring to these tobacco products as 'candy' or 'mints' are irresponsibly perpetuating false and misleading information." During the hearing on Wednesday, R.J. Reynolds scientist Geoffrey Curtin emphasized that the health risks associated with dissolvable products are less dire than those linked with cigarettes; there's less concern about lung cancer, for example. But studies have shown that use of smokeless tobacco increases the risk of heart disease and gum disease, as well as the risk of oral, esophageal and pancreatic cancers.