Actionable Health Videos for Smokers, Dippers and Chewers

I have been educating tobacco users for 25 years about the differential in risks associated with combustible and smoke-free tobacco products.  I have published dozens of studies in medical and scientific journals (here), authored newspaper op-eds, been quoted in many news stories, penned over 500 blog posts and provided countless radio interviews. 

In the face of this fact-driven effort, tobacco prohibitionists in the medical establishment and government have mounted a campaign of exaggerated and even fabricated claims against effective harm reduction tools, including smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products.  Occasionally, they have subjected me to ad hominem attacks.  With these measures, prohibitionists have dissuaded massive numbers of smokers from acting to reduce their risk and lengthen their lives.  Over these 25 years, 10 million smokers have suffered premature, and for many, preventable early deaths.

Of late, vapers have become organized and vocal in challenging these unscientific, unprofessional, and even unethical attacks on tobacco harm reduction, but traditional tobacco users, like smokers, dippers and chewers, have been slower to respond. 

One notable exception has been the extremely impactful work of two internet stars.  Darcy Compton joined with two friends in 2005 “to create a product that would fill a need of every smokeless tobacco user in America.  From the humble beginnings of three guys assembling spittoons by hand out of a residential garage, to a full-fledged manufacturing plant based in Southern California, Mud Jug epitomizes the American dream of hard work, honesty, quality and value. Every Mud Jug [portable spittoon] has been, and will continue to be 100% made in the United States of America.” (here) 

Darcy is more than a founder and president of Mudjug (here); he’s the star of the wildly popular Mudjug YouTube Series that boasts nearly 200,000 subscribers (here). 

In 2012, Darcy published a video review of my book, For Smokers Only (here), which has since drawn over 300,000 views.  


Upon learning of the video in 2014, I contacted Darcy and accepted his invitation to record an interview with him, which is available here.  That chat, which has 211,000 views, demonstrates the educational power of social media.    

Darcy subsequently introduced me to Jared, aka “Outlaw Dipper,” who recently conducted his own interview with me (here).  Five weeks later, that video has 138,000 views and 1,000 comments. 

The FDA insists that the central message of its smokeless tobacco education campaign is “smokeless doesn’t mean harmless,” (here), but the campaign itself is harmful to public health.  The agency claims to “educate rural, male teenagers about risks of dipping,” but it engages in exaggeration, distortion, and even fabrication of minimal or nonexistent risks.  It willfully misleads smokers and dippers, putting their lives in jeopardy.

In contrast, the videos from Darcy and Jared are educating hundreds of thousands about the simple, scientific tobacco truth that smoke-free is vastly safer.  Thousands of posted comments prove what surveys have shown (here): that most Americans remain unaware of the differential risks of smoking and dipping.  Darcy’s and Jared’s viewers aren’t just being entertained; many have subsequently switched from cigarettes to smokeless. 

Darcy and Jared will never get public health awards for their videos, but they have performed a public health service of incalculable value.

“For Smokers Only” Audiobook & Video Interview

If reading’s not your thing, you can now get the facts on smokeless tobacco and tobacco harm reduction via two new offerings – the audiobook version of my updated text, “For Smokers Only” (here) and a lively YouTube conversation on the issues with Darcy Compton, president of Mudjug (click on the video).

I started advocating for smokers to switch to vastly safer smokeless tobacco products some 20 years ago, when my research showed that health risks related to smokeless use were but a tiny fraction of those associated with smoking. 

My first journal articles caused an uproar.  A National Cancer Institute director called me “unethical” for suggesting that smokers switch, and I was attacked by outraged national dental associations and colleagues (here).  Their message was plain: do your research, but don’t tell smokers what I had discovered – that the claimed health risks of smokeless tobacco were largely fabricated, and the resulting misinformation was preventing smokers from considering a quitting option that worked. (My findings have since been widely duplicated and accepted.)

I resolved to devote my career to educating smokers about safer smoke-free products, and in 1995 I authored a book, “For Smokers Only: How Smokeless Tobacco Can Save Your Life.” 

Last year, my publisher released the ebook version, updated with a fresh chapter on e-cigarettes.  It’s available at Amazon (here), Barnes and Noble (here) and ITunes (here).  Now he’s issued the audiobook version, downloadable at Audible.com (here).

Darcy Compton, California manufacturer of Mudjug portable spittoons (here), has developed a global online following.  His YouTube review of “For Smokers Only” has attracted some 225,000 visitors (here).  Darcy and I recently sat down for a lengthy conversation on all aspects of smokeless tobacco use. 

I am indebted to Darcy and Mudjug for their vocal support of my scientific findings and groundbreaking work in tobacco harm reduction. 

For Smokers Only: The E-Book With Bonus E-Cig Chapter

In 1994, I published the first professional medical articles documenting that smokeless tobacco contained satisfying doses of nicotine (in the Journal of the American Dental Association, here) and was vastly safer than smoking (in Nature, here), and I proposed “that smokeless tobacco be recommended as a cigarette substitute by persons who cannot stop smoking.” (in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, here).

My scientific articles drew massive opposition.  The National Cancer Institute investigated my university, claiming that my strategy was unethical (documented in Jacob Sullum’s excellent book, For Your Own Good, available here) as other medical groups launched vicious attacks.  

One fact was beyond contradiction: Smokeless tobacco use was at least 98% safer than smoking.  While scientific evidence for tobacco harm reduction was overwhelming, smokers were completely uninformed about the lifesaving option of switching to a smoke-free delivery system.  This led me, in 1995, to address smokers directly with a book, “For Smokers Only: How Smokeless Tobacco Can Save Your Life.”

Recognizing the continuing relevance of this groundbreaking work, publisher Rick Newcombe of Sumner Books has just released it as an e-book, updated with a bonus chapter on e-cigarettes.  From exaggerated health scares to bogus gateway claims, opponents of e-cigarettes are using the same tactics they’ve used against other smokeless tobacco products for decades.   

Dr. Dean Edell, physician and host of an award-winning health radio program for 31 years (here), described For Smokers Only as “credible, logical and eminently do-able.”

The FDA Tobacco Product website offers as an example of “Health Fraud” (here) the suggestion “that a tobacco product is safer, less harmful, contains a reduced level or is free of a harmful substance, or presents a lower risk of tobacco-related disease compared to other tobacco products…To date, no tobacco products have met the requirements that would permit them (sic) to make claims of reduced risk or harm to users and nonusers of their regulated tobacco products.”

Applying that absurd definition, I have been conducting health fraud for 20 years.

Smokers, smokeless and e-cig users, get the help you deserve.  Download For Smokers Only from Amazon (here), Barnes and Noble (here) or ITunes (here).