Snuff Moves

My old friend Gerald Warner has, I’m glad to discover, a blog at the Telegraph entitled Is It Just Me? (sometimes, yes, Gerald, I’m afraid it is…). In his most recent post Gerald reports that the health industry has opened a new front in the Tobacco Wars. Not content with persecuting smokers, the unco guid are preparing to take aim at snuff aficionados. Seriously. As Gerald observes, this is no surprise:

Of course, it had to happen. The health fascists, having overrun the cigarette, cigar and pipe-smokers, are now advancing on the snuff-takers. We have been here before. Persecution of snuff-taking began in the early 17th century when Sultan Amurath IV of Turkey made it a capital offence. Shortly afterwards, in 1643, Michael I of Russia, the first Romanov tsar, ordered that people caught taking snuff should have their noses cut off.

I confess, gracious reader, that it is some time since I was a regular snuffer.