For a long time, snus and cigarettes were a natural part of Håkan Friedrich's life. Almost 40 years after that first puff, cigarettes have been replaced by e-cigs and snus by citrus-flavored nicotine pouches. Join Håkan on his journey to becoming smoke-free - a story about Sweden and how smoking disappeared. It starts in a convenience store in Västra Frölunda.
- Vejpkollen cooperates with Convenience Stores Sweden News to depict Swedish nicotine use, beyond the statistics. This is a slightly modified version of the original report that was published in CSS News. -
"I think I took my first puff when I was 11. Even tried to buy cigarettes then. It went like that, because I didn't know what kind I wanted. "A red blend" I said. But there wasn't any, and the cashier ended up having to help me figure out that it was Prince I was looking for. Then she told my mom. It was in the convenience store where we lived. Everyone knew everyone."
Håkan Friedrich, 48, remembers the details. Frölunda, a suburb of Gothenburg in the mid-1980s. The classic square had just been renovated and 42% of Swedish men over 15 smoked daily, 26% of women. But not Håkan Friedrich's parents. He was born in 1974 and grew up in a smoke-free home.
"Smoking was completely out of the question at home. My mother had asthma and reacted to most things, and my father used snuff," says Håkan.
"Likes to get up to speed on new technologies"
We meet in the woods of Ale, a few miles north of Gothenburg. Håkan Friedrich is moving quickly up a hill, searching for the mint green Frisbee he has just thrown between the trees. We are playing Disc Golf, or Frisbee Golf, a sport that has become Håkan Friedrich's hobby during the week when he is not working. He works three-day shifts at a plastics factory in Gothenburg. 40 hours per weekend - completely free during the week.
"It suits me perfectly. I've been at the factory since 1999 and trained on the job. I'm the kind of person who likes to get stuck into technical stuff and I've been given the opportunity to do so, both in my private life and at work."
Smoked like a madman as a teenager
Vaping, e-cigarettes, is one of many hobbies, but also 3D printing and just about anything else that spells "new technology". Håkan Friedrich has a tendency to want to be first with "the new", he says. If it's not cell phones and gadgets, it's something else. That seems to have always been the case. He was also one of the first to start smoking in his group of friends, he recalls. Red Prince. Soft pack. That was the order of the day in his early teens
"I tried it early and smoked fully when I was fourteen. I smoked like crazy throughout my teens. But snus was also there, on the side, all the time. If I remember correctly, there were actually many friends who switched to snuff only, even then. But I preferred to smoke."
Never tried to stop
We stop at a tee-off point, just like on a golf course, but without clubs and balls. A short break. Håkan takes two quick shots on his vejp, a rainbow-colored story with a big tank. Shining in the spring sun. But it quickly goes back into his pocket, and before the little cloud has cleared, he has picked up a well-used snuff box. A nicotine pouch goes in. The break is over and the next Frisbee flies like a missile over the camp.
Håkan never really tried to stop smoking, he says. But he has still stopped at times, mostly for external reasons.
"The first time was when I took a diving course in Östersund. Then I switched completely to snuff. Real snus, that is. Nicotine pouches did not exist then. I thought the portion snus was very practical. You could pick up a snus with your tongue without taking off your gloves. It was freezing cold."
Different periods - snus or cigarettes
When he returned to more southerly latitudes, the cigarettes started to creep back in, he recalls.
"There were a lot of parties and there was a lot of drinking at weekends. Smoking is more social and became important when meeting new people. So it wasn't long before I was smoking fully again. Even though I was still using snuff, cigarettes were number one"
He says that it has always been like that. Snus and cigarettes in turns. Different periods in life.
It was only in 2011 that everything changed.
"I remembered sitting in the car with a friend when I saw a sign outside the shop where we used to buy snus. "Now we sell e-cigarettes!" I said, 'Stop the car'. It was a new technological gadget. I just had to try it. On pure instinct"
The cigar started to taste bad
Since then he has not smoked at all. Not that he hasn't tried, he says.
"I learned how to use the e-cig, a very simple device by today's standards. But it was enough to get me interested. I tried smoking a cigarette again after a few months. But it just tasted bad"
At that time, it was possible to buy e-liquid with really high nicotine levels, he recalls. It would be 2018 before the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) was implemented in Sweden, with a nicotine limit of 20 milligrams per milliliter.
"I think I started with 24 mg, but of course I had to try 32 mg as well, just because it was available. It was way too strong, but as I said, I like to try different things" he laughs "It's probably that vein that made me actually adapt to vejpa instead of smoking. Quite quickly, too."
"Bought e-juice in strange places"
The supply of e-cigarettes in 2012 was drastically different from today, he notes. It was long before the advent of disposable models and everything from spare parts to e-liquid were rarities in the shops selling e-cigs.
"You could buy e-juice in the strangest places. Some sold them out of little boxes behind the counter. Sometimes without labels. Some had fancier shelves, but the staff selling them couldn't answer any questions. They always knew less than me. So I went online and read up instead. That's where me and my partner ordered our stuff."
Reduces risks enormously
After e-cigarettes became the main source of nicotine, he quit both snus and cigarettes. He wasn't too worried about the health risks, although research on e-cigarettes was not as extensive then as it is today.
"I reasoned like this: If it turns out that vejpning is deadly, I can always use snuff instead. Regardless, it's a good decision to give up cigarettes. Now it turns out that vejpning is very safe. I've been following the research closely too, especially that coming out of the UK. That vejpa poses less than five percent of the risks compared to smoking. This has been known for a long time now, and the fact that the research keeps confirming it is very reassuring"
Became more and more "anti-tobacco"
In connection with vejpningen, he became more negative about tobacco in general. Even snuff, he says. As with everything else, Håkan Friedrich went all-in. Soon he was spinning his own vaporizers (the little metal wire that heats up the vapor), building e-cigs from scratch, taking apart devices and learning how they worked at home in his apartment in Frölunda. He had become a vejpare. Enthusiast, to boot.
"I became more and more anti-tobacco as time went on. Even when it came to snus. I started to think that everything that had to do with tobacco just felt wrong and tasted bad. Especially when I tried the tobacco flavors developed for the e-cig. Dignified. In my opinion, that is."
Want to vary the flavors
"Flavors quickly became very important," he says.
"I vary a lot with the flavors. I never buy the same thing every time, but try to get a new one and come back to what I like another time. I like different fruits and have about seven or eight that I come back to. However, I can't with pastries, cake flavors and various vanilla mixes. They taste like beaver poop."
Started working extra - in a vejpshop
His newfound passion soon led him to start working as an extra in one of Gothenburg's vejpshoppar. He was free on weekdays and had the time, he says.
"I was their best customer too," he laughs. "I think I bought more in the store than all the other customers put together in the beginning and often hung around the store. The staff sent customers they didn't have time for to me all the time. So I thought I might as well work there too"
Rapid development
Håkan Friedrich finds his Frisbee out on the field. It is perfectly placed to reach the basket about ten meters away. A birdie. He's gotten good at this too, I think as we walk briskly towards the green. The dog Loki runs ahead and sniffs. Gets a warning from Håkan, wags his tail. Another nicotine bag goes under the lip before the last throw of the day.
Since e-cigarettes became popular, developments have been rapid. Håkan Friedrich has seen it all. "It's a bit like cell phones, but the other way around," he says.
"Dev has gone from small to large, from big to tiny, from flashy to quite simple. The disposable models are the latest thing. It's a great development, really."
Fascinated by nicotine pouches
The same goes for snus. Or rather, the product that emerged alongside snus: tobacco-free nicotine pouches, or white snus, as it came to be known. It turns out that Håkan was probably one of the first to try the modern nicotine pouch. Who else? I thought. It was 2016, and a major snus company was about to start producing nicotine pouches. Through his job at the on-site factory, Håkan got to hold a newly manufactured pouch that was not allowed to leave the premises. No label and everything was super secret, he says.
"There was a citrus flavor. Not a trace of tobacco. I was fascinated that it was possible to make snus that way. It was an experience and completely new to me. I had to get involved in that too."
"Important that e-cigs are everywhere"
So now he is taking turns. Again. But this time it's every other vejp, every other nicotine pouch. And he's happy with that. "Life as a smoker is a long way off," says Håkan. He sees the new nicotine products as very important for the future, especially for smokers but also for future generations. Perhaps it's the image of the 11-year-old in the suburbs of Frölunda that comes to mind. Or maybe just the years behind the till in a vejp shop.
"I think it's really important that e-cigs and nicotine pouches are available wherever there are cigarettes. That's what will work to get rid of smoking in the long run. Disposable e-cigs are both expensive and a bit flimsy. But many people, like me, like how easy they are to use and would rather get one than buy a pack of cigarettes. I always have a few disposable ones in my car. Just in case.
Cigarettes hidden away in shops
I ask him how he sees the future of new nicotine products. Will cigarettes disappear from the market?
"Not quite. But they will be hidden away in the shops. The packages will be gray and dull. I think most people will move on to other products over time. Even young people - but we see that they do, already today. And they do it even though they're not allowed to, just like I did," says Håkan Friedrich.
I leave him with his friends and dog Loki in the woods outside Ale.
"Fore!" Håkan shouts, the little nicotine pouch peeking out from under his lip. A guy in khaki clothes hurries away a few hundred meters down the field when Håkan sends the disk away, heading for the next target.
