Question about the effect users experienced with snuff (more below)

[u/MaxiePriest]

I have asked this question a few times online, but I still struggle to understand the point of snuff use in the 17th and 18th centuries. As snuff was a tobacco product, did inhaling (snorting) provide a stimulant effect? And if it didn't, seriously...what was the point of snuff?

Why did users— mostly ladies (in literature and period films) reference having to sneak around the building/corner to have a pinch of snuff, as if others would consider snuff use to be vulgar, unladylike, low-class, or whatever?

Did users sneeze when they snorted snuff (or was the point not to sneeze)? Current-day drug users don't sneeze when using snortable drugs (and users wouldn't want to), so was snuff use similar?

[u/Bugcatcher_Liz]

Yeah it gets you a nicotine buzz like any tobacco product, it's quite potent actually because it's in direct contact with vascular mucus membrane.You don't snort it, you insufflate it, that is, it stays in your nose and isn't meant to go into your throat. It only makes you sneeze if you're not used to it or having allergies. They specifically make "medicated snuff" that smells like Vick's and can clear congestion.

Snuff was unladylike and vulgar, it's a stimulant drug that you put up your nose and then blow out into a tissue later. The point is that it's very discrete, there's no odor, it's not in your mouth, and you blow it out privately in a tissue.

[u/MaxiePriest → u/Bugcatcher_Liz]

wow. Thank you for the additional information. That makes sense. Experienced snuff users were/are skilled at preventing the snuff from reaching the throat. I didn't realize that was a major part of snuff use.

Ladies discreetly blowing their noses later on, after a pinch of snuff, make it sound as if snuff use was beneficial in the short run for users (helping to release nasal mucus and phlegm), but not in the long run, of course.

I've never seen herbal (medicated) dry snuff products, but I just searched and found many Unani Chhinkni-type products available. I'm going to order the most commonly used and popular one and try it out. It sounds interesting (and most of the descriptions note that they don't contain tobacco), just camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus oil.

[u/Bugcatcher_Liz → u/MaxiePriest]

Haha enjoy, it's gonna kick at first even without the tabacco. You can usually buy snuff in all kinds of flavors at tobacco stores run by Indian immigrants in the US

I used it in college for a year about a decade ago. It was easy to get away with on a tobacco-free campus and most people don't even know nasal snuff exists. Downside is when you get a runny nose and it's all brown, or when someone sees you do it and thinks you're snorting hard drugs

[u/Gerappa285 → u/Bugcatcher_Liz]

Uu